Shaquille O’Neal may continually call Ben Simmons his ‘LSU brother’ but the feeling is not mutual if you ask the Australian.
Simmons had been the subject of constant criticism from O’Neal during his ongoing trade saga in Philadelphia, at one pointed branded a “crybaby” by the fifteen-time NBA All-Star.
O’Neal later revealed that Simmons was “mad” and had been in his DMs on social media after those comments but did not want to go into details on what was said between the two.
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“All I said is, ‘You’re leaving your man out there, you need to play.’ That’s all I said,” said O’Neal, referring to Simmons’ Sixers teammate Joel Embiid.
“He said some things, but I’m not going to elaborate on what he said because that’s not cool. “He was mad. Yeah he was probably mad because I’m his LSU brother. I’m still his brother.”
Well, O’Neal may not be so sure of that anymore after Simmons called him out in his appearance on JJ Redick’s podcast ‘The Old Man and the Three’.
“It doesn’t matter how much money you got, how famous you are, like it’s real, people go through everyday struggles,” Simmons said.
“I think it’s kind of ignorant, like Shaq and Chuck sometimes what they’re saying…. they have a platform to kind of like protect us and, you know, do good. Obviously they’re supposed to criticise us, we’re basketball players. But when it comes to personal stuff there’s a level of respect they should have.
“Even Shaq, when I was dealing with everything going on, I actually messaged him and he put it out. And I was like, alright.
“I DM’d him and I was like, ‘Why are you saying this if you don’t even know the story?’. He always wants to say like, ‘Yo, we’re LSU brothers, you’re my brother’, all this, that.”
Simmons though no longer feels the same way.
“If you’re my LSU brother you would’ve reached out by now and it’s been months since I’ve been dealing with this,” he said.
“You ain’t reached out once and said like, ‘Hey, you OK? Like, what’s going on’. The one person who did reach out was Jay Williams and he had a real talk with me.
“I was like, ‘I really appreciate that because, you’re trying to understand what’s going on with me’. Because he did say something and took it back, which I appreciated.”
O’Neal though doubled down on the criticism even after Simmons took issue with it.
Speaking to The Herald Sun earlier this year, the former NBA MVP said Simmons is a “fine player” who he wishes well but would not back down from his criticism.
“He’s had personal problems but I want him to succeed and I’ve been hard on him because I feel as an elder statesman it’s my job.” O’Neal said.
“I know what it takes to get to the top, top, top level and that guy knows what it takes to be great.”
He added: “He’s had some personal problems and I don’t like to measure that so I wish him well and hope that he can come back strong.”
