He meant to shut up Chuck up, but Shaq ended up starting a whole other debate. Unless you live under a rock, you’d know that TNT’s loudmouths, Charles Barkley, and Shaquille O’Neal have very different opinions about the WNBA. Chuck once again went on a rant about the apparent ‘petty jealousy’ towards Caitlin Clark while Shaq is staunch Team Angel Reese. Without compromising his loyalty to a fellow LSU alum, Shaq praised CC recently with a very bold comparison. The issue is not whether fans lean into it or not, but that the other guy, Stephen Curry, wanted to curb it.

After watching the season on screen for a long time, Shaq attended his first WNBA game this year last week. He sat courtside as Angel Reese debuted the first basketball performance shoe for Reebok. He even watched Caitlin Clark blow past Chicago Sky 81-100. Shaq was impressed by witnessing the top pick of the 2024 draft firsthand.

“When I see stuff on TV I’m like, OK, I’d like to see it in person. Well, I saw it in person,” O’Neal told USA Today a week since then. “She can play … from a basketball standpoint, she makes all the right plays, gets everybody involved and she has that Steph Curry (shooting) range.”

It doesn’t get bolder than a Steph Curry parallel but this is not a new thing. The Indiana Fever point guard has formed a formidable backcourt with Kelsey Mitchell. She recently recorded her 100th 3-pointer, a rookie record and faster than any freshman player. Since she arrived in the league, comparisons to The Chef followed.

Curry himself noticed it and shut it down. Not because he didn’t think Clark was there yet, but because he believes it’s unfairly boxing Clark into a mold. “I think it almost robs her of, like, the rest of her game, because she’s such a good floor, you know, she has her overall, you know, floor game, she’s racking up, you know, close to triple-doubles every night. And, like, her shooting ability is, you know, it’s her superpower, but the rest of her game is as polished as that, and so this is must-see TV,” he said on CBS Mornings in March.

So he might feel iffy that Shaq brought it back. But fans are going wild with it.

Shaq’s jealous of Steph Curry too

It’s mostly because Shaquille O’Neal is squarely in Angel Reese’s corner. He still is. He’s seen her play at LSU but has yet to see Clark’s game in person. After watching both play in person, Shaq can’t clearly call the ROTY race anymore. Reese is out for the rest of the season from a wrist injury but she’s still very much in contention for ROTY. He now feels it’s a very close race between Reese and Clark.

Barkley recently claimed that the WNBA is sabotaging themselves due to “petty jealousy” towards Clark. Shaq, who coined the concept of ‘professional jealousy,’ dismissed his frenemy’s take. He showed he’s jealous of Steph while he’s at it.

“There’s envious jealousy, there’s professional jealousy,” O’Neal said. “Sure there’s a lot of people who are professionally jealous. I am. I’m professionally jealous of a lot of people. I’m professionally jealous of Steph (Curry), he makes $60 million. But hey, that’s life.”

With an embarrassing free throw record during 19 years in the NBA, Shaq is jealous of Curry’s and Clark’s shooting skills too. “Loudmouths like Chuck are talking about hating — it’s not hating,” he says reminding Barkley that he too dealt with it in the league. But hey, that’s life.