Carmelo Anthony's Blunt Message to Shaquille O'Neal After Rudy Gobert Attacks

One of the worst-kept secrets around the NBA is that legendary big man Shaquille O'Neal is not the biggest fan of Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert.

The Hall-of-Fame center made it quite clear earlier this offseason that he doesn't think Gobert is worth the five-year, $205,000,000 max veteran extension he signed back in 2020. In fact, O'Neal is on record calling Gobert the worst player in the NBA, which is a take he fired off while doing a partnership with Complex earlier this offseason.

While O'Neal poking fun at Gobert may have been somewhat comical at first, the consistency in which he goes after the Frenchman has appeared to have gone too far. Fellow former NBA star, Carmelo Anthony called out O'Neal on the most recent episode of his podcast "7 PM in Brooklyn," expressing that O'Neal needs to leave Gobert alone.

“Yo Shaq, Champ, leave Rudy the f*** alone man,” Anthony said . “Come on bro like stall him out man, stall the guy out, man. You know, Sacré bleu, and all this.”

Anthony did suggest that part of O'Neal's resentment toward Gobert and other modern players is the fact that they don't value O'Neal's input or advice. Anthony explained that because the game has changed so much, the modern player doesn't feel the need to consult the four-time champ.

“I wish they would (see Shaq),” Anthony said. “With that being said, they don’t want to because they don’t feel like there’s any relevancy between Shaq’s game and the game today. So nobody is saying go see Shaq. They’re going to say, hey go see T-Mac, like go see this guy, go see Melo, like they ain’t like go see Shaq.”

Gobert addressed O'Neal after his comments during the Complex partnership, calling O'Neal's comments about him "sad."

“It is sad to see someone that has accomplished as much as you did, Shaq, both in sport and business still be triggered by another man’s finances and accomplishments," Gobert wrote on social media. “I get the entertainment part but unlike other folks, you don’t need that stuff to stay relevant.”

While Gobert may never live up O'Neal's standards, the four-time Defensive Player of the Year did help Minnesota make their first Western Conference finals since 2004 this past season.

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