Beefs can be legendary among veteran athletes. They compete with each other and sometimes even get to each other outside the court. One such major and unexpected rivalry happened between the NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal and NFL veteran Shannon Sharpe. O’Neal in an interview had stated that instead of Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander should have won the MVP. Sharpe gave O’Neal an unexpected reply.

Sharpe on The Nightcap podcast opined that Shaq was envious of Jokic who had bagged his third MVP award. Taking cognizance of the same, Shaq just blasted Shannon on an Instagram post and now the 2000 MVP has come forward to warn Shannon that he would rip the latter a new one -in 50-cent style.

“the @50cent of the nba will make his last response when he wakes up from his nap. then i’m done with it.  it is was it is ,ain’t no fun when the rabbit got the gun. #mixtapecomingsoon,” Shaq tweeted on Friday.

Why did the beef between Shaq and Shannon Sharpe start?

Though the beef is quite new and has just started, Shaq both with this post and the 50-cent response elevated it to another level. Notably comparing himself to 50 cent means that Shaq will certainly give Sharpe a hard time which might pinch Sharpe. 50 Cent has often been called the ‘assassin’ and has roasted a lot of rappers which have borne the brunt of his wrath. Therefore, Shaq taking on a 50-cent avatar will most probably be the end of this beef.

Previously, when Shaq had opined that Jokic didn’t deserve the MVP award, the Serbian star had taken it in good stride even though a lot of viewers felt that Shaq was being rude for no reason. Sharpe reacted sharply stating as per Sports Illustrated, “He sees a guy like Nikola Jokic that’s not as dominant as him, gets three (MVP awards) in four years, I think a part of Shaq is envious of that.”

“It’s hard for me to put somebody in the GOAT conversation with one MVP,” Sharpe remarked. “So we going to take somebody with one regular season MVP and put him in front people that got three, that got four, that got five. If he had my work ethic, he had 40,000 points.”

Notably, Shaq won the Finals MVP thrice from 2000-2002 but unfortunately could grab the NBA MVP award only in 2000. Whereas Jokic won the Finals MVP just once till now in 2023 but has clinched the NBA MVP award thrice, the most recent being in 2024. Till now, Sharpe hasn’t replied, so it remains to be seen where this beef will take us. Fans would be hoping for a quick conflict resolution between the two legends.