Olympic gold medallist Shaquille O’Neal has given a brutal tackle Group USA’s marketing campaign on the Paris Olympics.
The all-time huge man performed for Group USA within the 1994 FIBA World Championship and within the 1996 Olympics, the place he took residence gold medals on each events.
On his podcast not too long ago, he was aksed what he thought of Jayson Tatum being benched and he pivoted to how unimpressed he was by Group USA on the video games total.
Regardless of the staff being made up of a number of the greatest NBA gamers in historical past – LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant – the staff nearly went all the way down to South Sudan in an exhibition sport, who had by no means performed within the Olympics earlier than.
“I’m not even being attentive to the Olympics,” mentioned O’Neal on The Large Podcast with Shaq.“… I’ve a dominant character. I don’t care how you’re, no matter, my cousin Kenny simply had this argument upstairs. My cousin mentioned, ‘The world is getting shut’ however I don’t suppose it’s. The truth that (USA Basketball gained) 97-95, you solely beat South Sudan by one. Come on, bro. That’s by no means imagined to occur.”
USA redeemed themselves within the official video games, going undefeated by the ballot video games and finals, culminating with an epic in in opposition to France within the Ultimate.
Shaq’s disdain from the Olympics might have come from when he competed within the 1996 Video games in Atlanta.
He not too long ago admitted on a seperate episode his podcast that he threw his gold medal out of the window, due to the dearth of taking part in time he bought within the Ultimate.
“The Olympic Video games, ’96, I performed all through, helped them come again, win video games,” the Corridor of Famer mentioned. “And within the gold medal sport, [coach] Lenny Wilkens says, ‘Hey, that is most likely David Robinson’s final sport, so he’s gonna get extra minutes.’ I mentioned, ‘Cool.’”
“He didn’t play me in any respect till, like, the final two minutes. I used to be so pissed off, after the ceremony, I drove residence in my uniform, and I threw the goddamn medal out the window on 1-75.”
“On the highway, someplace on the freeway, there’s an Olympic gold medal,” The Large Podcast cohost Adam Lefkoe joked.
Shaq affirmed that he doesn’t remorse chucking out his gold medal and hasn’t ever heard of it being discovered.
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