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Shaquille O’Neal doubled down on Charles Barkley’s comment that Kevin Durant’s career outside Golden State is an “abject failure.”
On the “The Big Podcast with Shaq,” the Lakers legend agreed with Barkley, who said last week that Durant “piggybacked on the Warriors” to win his first two championships.
“Yeah, if you go back and look at his career,” O’Neal said. “As the best player and being the leader, and all that goes with that. See we were there, we saw it. OKC, up 3-1. One more game, and when you’re the guy, all the pressure goes on you.”
Durant, who played for the Warriors from 2016-2019, won two Finals MVPs during his championship stint with Golden State.
O’Neal also hashed up Barkley’s April comments, when Barkley called Durant a “bus rider” and questioned his two titles with Golden State, where he teamed up with future Hall of Famers in Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green.
“A lot of people were talking about the bus driver, Chuck was absolutely right. He was not driving the bus in Golden State,” Shaq said, adding, “You were on the bus, you were sitting up front…
“You win and we don’t respect it. Don’t get mad at us. […] We talking about, when you the guy, in championship moments, can you take it to the next level? We haven’t seen that yet,” Shaq said. “If you’re the guy and you ain’t get it done, that means you failed.”
O’Neal added that Barkley looks at his own career as an “abject failure” because the 11-time All-Star doesn’t have any championships.
“He says it all the time and I throw it in his face all the time,” said Shaq. “He has G-14 classification, he does. Not the championship floor but he’s in the building.”
O’Neal later said he “didn’t know what abject means,” but that “it sounded good.”
Last week, Barkley took aim at Durant in during an appearance on “Bickley & Marotta” on Arizona Sports.
“All the old guys, he get mad we say it, (but) he piggybacked on the Warriors to win his first two championships,” Barkley said last Thursday. “But if you go back and look at his career, as the best player and being the leader that all goes with that, he’s been an abject failure. Every time he’s had to be the leader and best player, he has not had success. That’s what us old guys think about him.”
Durant, who will turn 34 in September, signed a four-year, $198 million extension with the Nets last August. He recommitted to the Nets last month after he initially requested a trade out of Brooklyn in June.
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