Shaquille O’Neal was savage for this.
After LeBron James was heckled by a fan for his hairline last week, O’Neal kept that same energy in a fiery tweet about Kevin Durant’s hair.
It all started Saturday when Durant responded to a headline about O’Neal, who said he did not know who Rui Hachimura was prior to the Lakers trading for the former Wizards forward last Monday.
“If you ain’t a top-10 player, I don’t know who you are,” O’Neal said on “Inside the NBA” at the time, adding that he would’ve preferred a trade for Wizards All-Star guard Bradley Beal.
“Shaquille doesn’t know ball?” Durant tweeted.
O’Neal didn’t seem thrilled.
“i don’t kno ball, but i kno how to brush my hair, or decide to cut it when i was going bald. love always THE BUS DRIVER,” O’Neal wrote under a video of Durant that was tweeted by his company, Boardroom.
Durant responded to O’Neal, writing, “Damn, I got cooked for asking a simple question.”
Damn, I got cooked for asking a simple question.
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) January 28, 2023
O’Neal’s comment alluded to the nickname Charles Barkley coined for Durant on TNT’s “Inside the NBA” during the 2022 playoffs.
When the Durant and the Nets got swept by the Celtics in their first-round playoff series, Barkley called Durant a “bus rider” and questioned his two championship rings with Golden State, where he teamed up with future Hall of Famers in Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
“I don’t want to badmouth the dude, but you guys are always talking about that championship stuff,” Barkley said at the time. “I tried to tell y’all, all these bus riders, they don’t mean nothing to me.
“If you ain’t driving the bus, don’t walk around telling me you a champion. All these guys walking around with these championship rings, hey, y’all bus riders. When you’re the bus driver and you’ve got all that pressure when you have to play well or you’re going to get the blame, that’s a different animal.”
Barkley, an 11-time NBA All-Star, never won a championship in his 16-season playing career. His argument was that Durant had joined a championship Warriors team in 2016, one that won a title the year prior when they defeated the Cavaliers in six games.
While discussing Durant’s legacy on ESPN’s “Get Up” in June, Barkley said NBA old heads won’t respect Durant unless he’s the “bus driver” on a championship team.
When Durant hit back at Barkley on social media — calling him an old head who can’t accept that today’s players make more money than him — O’Neal stepped in.
Durant then replied, “He’s a grown up, he doesn’t need security Shaquille.”
During an episode of “The Big Podcast with Shaq” in September, O’Neal agreed with separate comments Barkley made on Arizona Sports’ “Bickley & Marotta” that Durant “piggybacked on the Warriors” to win his first two championships.
Durant, who played for the Warriors from 2016-2019, won two Finals MVPs during his stint with Golden State.
The 34-year-old, Durant signed a four-year, $198 million extension with the Nets in August 2021. He then recommitted to Brooklyn after he initially requested a trade in June.
Durant has been out with a right MCL sprain since earlier this month. On Tuesday, the Nets announced that he is progressing well in his recovery and will be reevaluated Feb. 7.
