Shaq didn't hold back on cutting down Jayson Tatum's chances of making it to the Hall of Fame.
NBA great Shaquille O’Neal didn’t hold back on the chances of the Boston Celtics’ star Jayson Tatum making it into the Hall of Fame. On a recent episode of the “The Big Podcast”, the four-time champion clearly disagreed with the idea of Tatum’s induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. On the show, his co-host Adam Lefkoe claimed that Tatum has a solid resume and he deserves to get the top honors.
However, the former LA Lakers star didn’t agree with it, and bluntly expressed his opinion. He said, “You (expletive) just throwing people in there now. You ever see that movie ‘Ocean’s Thirteen?’ I’m going to break into the Hall of Fame and take all of my (expletive) out. You (expletive) just throwing people in there now.”
He recalled what Isiah ’Zeke’ Thomas once told him that there are two Hall of Fames. The Hall of Famer said, “Isiah Thomas said it the best one day, he said there’s two Hall of Fames. There’s a bad (expletive) Hall of Fame and there’s a basketball Hall of Fame.” The 15-time NBA All-Star went on to ask, “Which Hall of Fame is he in?”
On the same show, former NBA player Brandon Jennings explains his take on why he called Jayson Tatum the “softest Celtics superstar ever.” He said, “I said that Jayson Tatum is the softest Celtics superstar ever. I never said he wasn’t great.”
When Shaq asked Jennings to explain why he said what he said, the latter said, “I guess I am going off because Jaylen Brown getting finals MVPs and in the Eastern Conference and this is supposed to be your team and your moment. That’s just like if when you went to the finals and if Kobe would have got finals MVP would have been looking kind of like well Shaq ain’t really like, you would be just looking like well Shaq ain’t really like that.”
The 35-year-old went on to explain that it doesn’t mean that Tatum is not a great player. Jennings also went on to clarify that his words were misinterpreted.
It is to be noted that Tatum suffered a non-contact Achilles rupture During Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the New York Knicks. He was then sidelined for the remainder of the season. The 2024 champion finished the 2024-25 season with an average of 26.8 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 6.0 assists per game.
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