Last week, I mentioned the social media beef that was all of a sudden forming between former NBA superstars Shaquille O’Neal and Scottie Pippen, leaving me wondering who will be the first to create a time machine to get the all-time best L.A. Lakers squad to go up against the all-time best Chicago Bulls team.
While one would think the former ballers would let this thing fizzle out—especially after Pippen seemed to get the last word with an Instagram post—Shaq isn’t one to get punked out, revisiting the conversation during a podcast yesterday to get the last word.
Here’s what the big fella had to say while on-air:
First of all, everybody has an opinion about who’s the greatest team, blah, blah, blah. And it’s okay to have an opinion!
It was the five best Lakers and the five best Bulls, and I said we’d beat ’em by 50. That’s how I feel, and I’m sticking to it. I didn’t say, “Hey, at Scottie Pippen, we’ll beat you guys by 50. Hey, at [Dennis] Rodman, we’ll beat you guys.” I just said, “We’ll beat you by 50.” Now he made it personal when he said, “Oh, at Shaq. Hey, I don’t believe in hypotheticals.” So he swung first, and I’m gonna swing second and I’m gonna swing last.
Because I don’t let bums disrespect me. He was a great player, but I’m the bridge, he’s the water. He will always be under me. Every now and then he will rise to the occasion and get to the same level as the bridge, but when reality kicks in, I am bridge, he is water. He is under me.
Scottie Pippen can’t disrespect me. So he comes at me, I’m coming back. And we can do this all day, ’cause I have nothing to do.
Damn, bro, Shaq coming in for the fucking left-right combo on that one, calling out Pip and basically reminding the former Bulls player that he was Robin to Michael Jordan’s Batman for all those six titles.
Sports always brings some of the best debates, though it’s usually just between a bunch of drunken fans who have nothing better to do. With Shaq admiting that he, too, has nothing to do, it’s time to see what Pippen replies back with to see where this one ends up.
In the meantime, let’s just see how the video game NBA 2K has the matchup between the two franchises all-timers’ shakedown.