Things got a little heated during Wednesday’s Western Conference Finals pre-game show. Two of the internet’s most treasured broadcasters (ex-basketball stars Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley) got into a pretty heated debate live on the air.
The argument was all about Jimmy Butler and whether or not it would be harder for him to score on the Defensive Player of the Year.
Check out the clip and see it for yourself:
https://twitter.com/NBAonTNT/status/1527086832361480193
Shaquille O’Neal: “First of all, Jimmy can get 40 if he puts his mind to it. With or without Marcus Smart, Jimmy Butler can get 40. He’s at that level now where, at this point in the game, he’s saying ‘ain’t nobody stopping me.’ Marcus Smart ain’t checking Jimmy Butler. If Jimmy Butler wanna get 40, he gonna get 40. Period. He’s that type of player now.”
Charles Barkley: “It’s harder to score on the defensive player of the year, fool!”
O’Neal: “You better look at my Finals against Dikembe Mutombo. No it ain’t. It is not. Jimmy Butler’s a great player. He wanna get 40, he can get 40. I don’t wanna hear that Defensive Player of the Year stuff. I don’t even know what that is. Check what I did to Dikembe Mutombo.”
Barkley: “Listen, Petty White, we ain’t talking about you. We’re talking about Jimmy Butler. Playing against the Defensive Player of the Year is a lot harder.”
O’Neal: “When you’re a great player, you get greater. You never got greater at this point in your career. I did, I know what I’m talking about.”
Barkley: “No, you were riding on Dwyane and Kobe’s coattails…”
For hard-core fans, you already know that this behavior isn’t anything new for Shaq and Charles. hey argue all the time on the air, and plenty of their debates have been more intense than this one.
Like all takes, there isn’t an objective right or wrong, as everybody has their own opinion on the matter. But it does seem accurate to say that scoring on the Defensive Player of the Year is more challenging than scoring on an average defender. Clearly, not everyone feels the same way.
