Shaq is taking a swipe at Kevin Durant that is almost as vicious as the one that he took at Brad Miller back in the day.
The retired Basketball Hall of Famer tore into the Brooklyn Nets star Durant in an appearance this week on “The Rich Eisen Show.” O’Neal was critical of Durant for wanting out of the team he essentially helped build.
“When you put a house together, you should live in it,” said O’Neal of the former MVP Durant. “You were the architect. You hired another architect [James Harden]. And now the other architect is in Philadelphia.
“You, as a leader, should make it work,” O’Neal added. “But you don’t want to make it work, I guess you’re gonna buy another house. You know he’s probably trying to get to a contender. It’s easier that way.”
O’Neal raises some great points here. For one, Durant hand-picked the Nets franchise, hand-picked his head coach (Steve Nash) and hand-picked his teammates (Harden, Kyrie Irving, and others)…only to go running for the backdoor once adversity hit. Even softer is that Durant listed the Phoenix Suns and the Miami Heat among his preferred trade destinations…teams that were already at the very top of their respective conferences last season.
These comments from O’Neal are similar to what a prominent colleague of his said about Durant even before Durant requested a trade from Brooklyn. While Durant’s god-tier game speaks for itself, his tendency to take the easy way out instead of weathering the storm right where he is will only continue to attract more criticism.
