In 1996, Michael Jordan made history once again, but not on the court. With a $30 million single-season contract, he was the highest-paid player of that season. Suddenly, players knew their values. In turn, that inspired Shaquille O’Neal to demand a nine-figure payday from the Orlando Magic. As expected, the Magic rejected that request (Shaq wasn’t Jordan after all), so he took a $120 million deal with the Lakers. And guess what, Shaq went on to earn more than the GOAT in career earnings. Crazy right? Over the years, Shaq has made rings and salaries a chip on the shoulders for the next generation of players. And this time, it was Rudy Gobert who came into the firing line. But his repetitive critique has made even some of Gobert’s critics change sides.
Road Trippin’ dove into Shaq’s recent comments on The Big Podcast. “If Rudy Gobert gets into the Hall of Fame, I’ll wear this dress to the motherf—— ceremony,” O’Neal said, referencing Charles Barkley’s infamous dress from the 2012 Weight Watchers commercial. Shaq believes 4 DPOYs and no rings do not make a HoFer. His argument was the same: that Rudy gets paid too much money for not being a center like Shaq was. Ouch.
As much as the guys at Road Trippin’ agree that Gobert is nowhere near the Big Aristotle, the money argument doesn’t hold up. “I’m very critical of players in the way that they perform, right? And like critiquing their game if they’re not getting the s— done, but I never, ever, ever ever fucking count somebody else’s pockets or tell the world what another player or these players shouldn’t be getting right?” Perkins said and hinted that he wants players to get paid well.
Richard Jefferson agreed, calling Shaq’s opinion “misguided,” and had an interesting analogy. “Shaq is one of those players that he’s always going to be looked upon, but respect, but what did he make triple in his career earnings than Michael Jordan?” RJ stated factually that O’Neal had bigger paydays than MJ’s short-term contracts. The Lakers paid him $32.5 million, which was more than what Jordan earned at his sixth championship run.
If it wasn’t for Jordan, RJ claims, Shaq wouldn’t be one of the most financially successful NBA players right now. Yet Jordan was not mad about it. “Shaquille O’Neal made triple ’cause the work that Michael Jordan put in, right? And Michael Jordan’s like, ‘Look, I won six championships. I won five MVPs.’ And this dude, he made triple the money.”
Jefferson even says that he earned more than Jordan, even though he’s a “bum,” a term Shaq has used to describe certain top earners in the league. Yet he’s very grateful to Jordan, Shaq, and the previous generation for making the NBA a lucrative job.
Shaquille O’Neal is why Rudy Gobert is getting paid so much
Michael Jordan’s biggest income was through endorsement deals, particularly with Nike. Shaquille O’Neal modeled his business dealings after those and Magic Johnson, yet walked away from Reebok and $40 million at the peak of his popularity. For the noble cause of creating affordable sneakers, it’s not a bad thing. Over the years, O’Neal created a blueprint for off-court success with diverse business moves that weren’t just owning teams like Jordan and Magic.
Unlike his two idols, who don’t go on TV much, Shaq earned a permanent spot on Inside the NBA. He was critical of players on his TV job, but the thing that irked him the most were the salaries that these modern players get paid. He claimed that higher-paid players are “sensitive” to criticism and think “they’re better than we were.” In 2021, Shaq admitted he’s jealous of today’s paychecks because his generation needed to have Michael Jordan-like stats to earn big contracts. Yet O’Neal has four MVPs and two championships less than the very standard, and got paid more than him.
Richard Jefferson, though, says Shaq has himself to blame for that. “The money went up, the numbers went up, and then we our job was to keep putting in the work,” for the next generation, RJ explained. So Gobert might not be playing like the traditional Big Man, aka Shaq, but he’s getting paid like one because of the standard O’Neal set. And RJ may have a reminder for Shaq about the position he’s in.
Dec 25, 2024; Dallas, Texas, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert (27) warms up before the game between the Dallas Mavericks and the Minnesota Timberwolves at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
“Our job is to create a better life for the next generation than we had. So this is a look of success to me. We should be proud that the numbers are this high, that the ratings are this high, that the interest is this high, that the value of the game that a lot of us put a decade like worth of building towards, why would we not be excited for these young men to get this money?”
Later in the podcast, RJ, who’s guaranteed to return on ESPN next season, subtly reminded that TNT lost the NBA because it is a hot $76 billion commodity. Because of that, players will earn even more, and so will Shaq, going to ESPN. And if RJ’s prediction is right, Shaq’s going to be wearing a dress to the Hall of Fame one day.
The post Shaquille O’Neal & Co Said To Be Misguided In Controversial Debate After Rudy Gobert Saga appeared first on EssentiallySports.
