Shaq says the Warriors wouldn't have contended in his era

Draymond Green is no stranger to stirring up conflict with former players and his latest public beef is with Shaquille O'Neal, who said the Warriors wouldn't have contended in his era.

The war of words between the two began when Green said he and teammate Steph Curry would have 'destroyed' O'Neal in his prime in the pick-and-roll on the "All The Smoke" podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. He also declared that the Warriors are the greatest team of all time.

Not surprisingly, O'Neal disagreed with Green's assessment, saying on "The Big Podcast with Shaq" that the Warriors would not have even been a top seed if they played at the same time as him.

"I like Draymond. I like guys that voice their opinion," O'Neal said. "I try not to get personal with guys. I like him, I like the way he plays. You have to listen to his points. He made good, key points. He said in their era. He didn't say in my era. ... In my era, [the Warriors] would have been the six or seven seed. You had us, you had San Antonio, you had the Utah Jazz, you had Portland, you had White Chocolate and C-Webb [in Sacramento]."

Obviously, there's no real way to know how teams from different eras would play against each other but that doesn't make it any less fun to endlessly speculate about it. Still, in the case of O'Neal and Green as players, it's hard to pretend like the two are on the same level. O'Neal was a 15-time All-Star, three-time NBA Finals MVP, and even won MVP in 2000. Meanwhile, Green has made three All-Star teams and has never come close to being named MVP in the regular season or the Finals. That's probably why O'Neal couldn't resist taking one last shot at Green.

"But again, it's his opinion," O'Neal said. "I try not to get personal with people's opinions. But however, Mr. Draymond, like you said, I would've torn your ass up on that block."