Move over Kendrick Lamar and Drake, there’s literally a bigger diss track feud in town after Shaquille O’Neal dropped one on Shannon Sharpe.
Sports media feuds are not new. Sports media feuds culminating in one person dropping a diss track on the other, however, is definitely a new level of battling. For those who are just a few hours behind on this rapidly escalating feud, it began when Inside the NBA invited Nikola Jokić on the show to celebrate his MVP and Shaq promptly told the Denver Nuggets center that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander deserved the award.
Sharpe accused Shaq of being jealous as he was watched Jokić win his third MVP in four seasons. Shaq, who likes to tout himself as the most dominant center in NBA history, earned just one regular season MVP in his 19-year career. After hearing Sharpe’s criticism, Shaq fired back on Instagram with an ‘I’m not jealous, your jealous’ retort while claiming the Pro Football Hall of Famer hasn’t earned the right to criticize his lone MVP.
Apparently, Shaq wasn’t done writing after his Thursday night Instagram post, as he continued his response by writing an actual diss track to further ignite his beef with Sharpe.
In addition to touting himself as the No. 1 NBA big man, Shaq has also calls himself the No. 1 athlete-rapper. O’Neal, if you remember, went platinum in 1993 with Shaq Diesel, and gold the next year with Shaq Fu: Da Return. Here he is 30 years later, whipping up a diss track on Sharpe on a random Thursday night. Which makes you wonder, is this beef real? Or was it all a ploy to make some noise at a time where diss tracks are dominating the news cycle. Further questioning the legitimacy of this beef, Shaq appeared on JJ Redick’s The Old Man and The Three podcast last week and claimed he never goes public with real feuds.
“When I’m serious, the world won’t know. It will just be me and you,” Shaq told Redick. “I have to like you to be able to say something about you…If I say something, and you respond, and you respond sensitively, that shows me you don’t have it. And a lot of times, I just be playing. So, am I serious when I talk about these guys? No. It’s fun. I’m a fun guy. Because again, when it’s serious, you’ll know it’s serious because it will be something else added to that article.”
Can a diss track be considered something else added to that article? Or is this just Shaq being a fun guy? Whatever it is, watch your back, Shannon. Because now that the sports media world knows diss tracks are fair play in media beefs, Skip Bayless is likely putting pen to paper as we speak.