Dirk Nowitzki Foils Shaquille O’Neal’s Clever Dig at Rudy Gobert With Cryptic Response

Can’t go a week without Shaquille O’Neal debating Hall of Fame criteria. The 2016 HoFer hosted newly minted HoFer Dirk Nowitzki on The Big Podcast this week. By the time he won the 2011 NBA championship, he had earned his stripes to be in the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame. Yet even after a year he still speaks like he can’t believe he’s in league with veterans like Shaq who owns the honor with rapper-grade confidence. O’Neal likes to advocate Hall of Fame honors, MVP titles, and championships as credentials over sports media professionals. It shows when he speaks about Rudy Gobert critically.

The Timberwolves center won his fourth Defensive Player of the Year award right after Shaq called him overrated while his TNT colleague, Charles Barkley was defensive about Gobert. O’Neal faced a lot of flak for it. And he pretended to be scarred when he asked Nowitzki if the Frenchman was a Hall-of-Famer now. And he made sure to convey it was a very deep question.

On The Big Podcast, Shaquille O’Neal said, “Is he [Rudy Gobert] a Hall of Famer now? I’m just asking, I’m not trying to be funny…because you know Isaiah Thomas said it to me, he said that there should be two, there’s for a bad mother-effer – that you’re in, I’m in, of course – and then as a, you know, because you know some analytical guys…it’s not the NBA Hall of Fame, it’s the Basketball Hall of Fame, whatever that means. So you think it should be two hall of fames [sic]?”

He started and ended with two different questions but he was referencing Gobert. The Timberwolves star was very close to his first finals after winning his fourth DPOY. He’s currently tied in that category with Dikembe Mutombo who was part of the 2015 Hall of Fame class and Ben Wallace who was inducted in 2021. Most fans and analysts believe Gobert is eligible for future Hall of Fame honors.

The German-born NBA legend didn’t touch on Gobert’s eligibility at all. Nowitzki played a humbled approach and stayed vague and somewhat paraphrased Shaq’s past comment that the Hall of Fame criteria are too ambiguous to comment on. Yet this is not like Shaq campaigning for 7x champion Robert Horry to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Shaquille O’Neal is not Rudy Gobert’s fan

Shaquille O’Neal’s commentary on Gobert is not the most constructive. He outrightly said on a previous episode of The Big Podcast, “I never thought he was a great defensive player.” He didn’t feel too bad that Draymond Green choked him either.

Gobert’s performance saw a stark decline in the Western Conference Finals against the Mavericks. O’Neal threw in sarcastic commentary for all his failed blocks. But the biggest burn was after Kendrick Perkins expressed regret for giving his DPOY vote to Gobert after seeing his decline. Shaq commented “Dam son,” to his rant.

Too bad for Shaq, statistically Gobert is looked upon favorably for future HoF eligibility. Compared to Dikembe (9.8) and Wallace (5.7), his career PPG so far is 14. He had one bad series but he helped lead the Wolves to the first playoffs in two decades. O’Neal might just have to prepare a congratulatory speech for him in the future.

Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say about the Reese-Clark rivalry and more, watch this video.