Shaquille O’Neal has no tolerance for the sort of poor play Ben Simmons produced for the Philadelphia 76ers in the playoffs.
After the Sixers’ Game 7 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday night, Simmons took responsibility for his poor play in the series. Simmons answered all the tough questions despite being completely gun shy on the court and costing his team.
Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith praised Simmons for facing the tough questions. Shaq acknowledged he liked what Simmons had to say, but said he would have been fed up with an important teammate not producing.
“If I play Game 1 and 2 and I know I’m not helping my team, what do you think I’m going to do in Game 3? I like what he said, but it don’t take seven games to know you’re not playing right. Get right. Be aggressive. I don’t want to hear all that,” Shaq said.
Then O’Neal got down to business.
“If he was in my locker room, I would have knocked his a– out,” Shaq said.
Now that is a threat. Some people probably don’t like hearing that, but that might help explain why Shaq won four championships during his career.
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