Shaquille O’Neal has a message for multi-millionaire NBA stars who complain about being overworked: stop complaining.
The NBA legend sounded off this week on contemporary stars and their scheduling complaints in the age of COVID-19.
“When you’re living in a world where 40 million people have been laid off and I’m making $200 million — you won’t get no complaining from me,” he said Tuesday during a CNBC appearance.
The “NBA on TNT” co-host’s comments appear to be a veiled jab at Los Angeles Laker Lebron James — one of the most vocal critics of the NBA’s hectic schedule on social media.
“If there’s one person that know [sic] about the body and how it works all year round it’s ME,” James tweeted June 16. “I speak for the health of all our players and I hate to see this many injuries this time of the year. Sorry fans wish you guys were seeing all your fav guys right now.”
James says a lack of “rim rest” resulted in a rash of injuries that have kept stars off the court during the playoffs.
“I’d play back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back,” O’Neal said of his willingness to play a grinding schedule. “And I’m making all that money? I just gotta do what the job entitles to me.” “I’m not knocking what anybody said but, me personally, I don’t complain and make excuses because real people are working their tail off and all we gotta do is train two hours a day, and then play a game for two hours at night and make a lot of money. So my thought process is a little different.”
They all didn’t wanna listen to me about the start of the season. I knew exactly what would happen. I only wanted to protect the well being of the players which ultimately is the PRODUCT & BENEFIT of OUR GAME! These injuries isn’t just “PART OF THE GAME”. It’s the lack of PURE
— LeBron James (@KingJames) June 16, 2021
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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