On Friday, Rudy Gobert was humiliated twice in one game. By Sunday, Shaquille O’Neal virtually escalated it to a third time. Not one to pass the opportunity to show the Minnesota Timberwolves center in poor light, Shaq shared a snippet of the last Denver Nuggets vs Timberwolves. It ended with a 119-116 win for the Wolves and some sore moments for Gobert. Nuggets’ Christian Braun had one of the best plays of this game and this season when he posterized Gobert.

With five minutes left in the last quarter, Denver was up 108-102 when Braun leaped, threw down a two-handed dunk over Gobert, brought the score to 110-102, and went viral. He broke into an aggressive celebration and Gobert nearly retaliated for the humiliation. Their respective actions invited two technicals on both players.

This moment was replayed on the Internet and on NBA shows over and over and naturally came to Shaq’s notice. He shared the Reel on his Instagram Stories, somehow glossing over Gobert’s other embarrassing viral moment from this game – when he was apparently terrified of Russell Westbrook. Fans were in fact looking forward to O’Neal’s reaction on that but this will do too.

Shaq didn’t give any additional context and let the clip do the talking. Though his sentiments behind this are pretty clear.

The Nuggets are also Shaq’s favorite team with Nikola Jokic. They were hoping for redemption from the 2024 playoffs which they lost to Anthony Edwards’ squad. The rematch didn’t end that way, Braun ended the game with 14 points, Gobert with 17. The simultaneous techs cancelled each other out and neither team got free throws.

While the Wolves earned a narrow win, Rudy Gobert is yet to impress. If the offseason made fans think Shaq would verbally dunk on any big man, they’re now starting to believe he’s right about the Frenchman.

Shaq won’t change his stance on Rudy Gobert

Shaquille O’Neal and Rudy Gobert’s beef got worse after the latter won his fourth DPOY award and escalated in the offseason. Gobert responded in a post after the 4x champion called him the ‘Worst Player of All Time.’ Shaq doubled down by highlighting Gobert’s poor plays for the French team in the Paris Olympics and repeatedly said, “If you sign a contract for ($250 million), show me you’re 250.” 

Oddly, Shaq was silent when the Wolves and Gobert agreed on a $110 million extension before the season opener. However, Dwight Howard was not. Still looking for a chance to return to the NBA, Howard said on his podcast, “Minnesota, y’all could have gave me 10 mil. What? They couldn’t have gave me 10 mil for the rest of the season.”

Shaq saw and reposted that clip for another virtual dunk on Gobert. It didn’t matter that Howard wants no part of Shaq’s beef with a fellow big man. If Big Diesel sees his opportunity to provoke Gobert, he’ll take it.