Los Angeles Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal caused quite a stir last week by calling out Utah Jazz star Donovan Mitchell on NBA on TNT. O’Neal has received a fair amount of criticism for his comments, and now he might be letting it get to him.
With O’Neal’s comments going viral and sparking responses from LeBron James and Kevin Durant, an artist decided to take advantage of the situation by Photoshopping a picture of Mitchell dunking on the four-time NBA champion.
This didn’t sit well with the Hall of Famer as he confronted the artist in a direct message on Instagram. Now O’Neal has challenged the artist to a game of one-on-one.
Stars players being openly critical of today’s game and its players is nothing new. It happens in professional sports all the time and will continue to happen in the future as the game continues to evolve.
Icons like O’Neal making headlines for critical comments or challenging rising stars like Mitchell have become commonplace in the NBA, especially considering his platform as an analyst on TNT.
It’ll be interesting to see where things go from here as O’Neal is not one to back down in situations like these. Mitchell has also seemed to embrace these critical comments even though he didn’t seem too happy about being called out on live television last week.
The 24-year-old guard is currently averaging 24.3 points, 5.0 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game for the Jazz. Thus far, Utah has exceeded expectations sitting behind the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers in the Western Conference standings with a record of 12-4.
