Shaquille O’Neal dunks on the Utah Jazz and insults them along the way

NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal is not a fan of the Utah Jazz.

To many people, Shaquille O’Neal is the big man who helped Kobe Bryant and Dwayne Wade get their first NBA Championships. He’s the man who helped get Penny Hardaway over with the NBA fandom, and one of the greatest big-men in the history of the game. To others, he’s Kazam and we will never let him forget it.

O’Neal isn’t one to mince words, it’s part of the reason he landed films like Kazam and the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad film that is Steele. His charisma is iconic, even if his choice of films, or words, isn’t. Since retiring, O’Neal has joined the crew on TNT and has become infamous for spouting nonsense alongside the likes of Charles Barkley; who he has a loving rivalry with on the shows they appear on together.

But not all rivalries are fun, at least for O’Neal. The man whom The Middle dubbed “Sha-quill” is still creating drama and beef wherever he goes. From his degradation of Javale McGee to his outright admission that he didn’t know how good Devin Booker was.

And like with McGee and Bookere, O’Neal has said some regrettable things; but maybe this is the most regrettable. In a quick conversation with GQ Sports, O’Neal admitted to not liking the Salt Lake City franchise, and called the squad “cheating bastards”, saying;

"Q: Least favorite arena?A: Utah, because they got all the calls! Always flopping. Once you got into foul trouble, you were not going to have a good game.Q: You felt like you were refereed differently in Utah?A: Oh yeah, everyone was! Those cheating bastards in Utah."

O’Neal isn’t known to hold back his opinions, and as we’ve seen in years past, O’Neal isn’t always right. In fact, it’s very ironic that O’Neal claimed the Utah Jazz cheated, as O’Neal has benefited from two of the biggest accusations of rigging in NBA history with the 2002 Western Conference Finals where O’Neal’s Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Sacramento Kings and the 2006 NBA Finals where O’Neals Miami Heat defeated the Dallas Mavericks.

Now, while there are many fans who believe that something shady occurred during those series (after all, Tim Donaghy does exist), there is little to no proof that O’Neal’s teams benefited from a rigged contest.

But, it’s still rich to hear that O’Neal of all people, is complaining about another team that was getting calls and getting away with stuff.