Thursday night’s bizarre postgame interaction between NBA legend and TNT studio analyst Shaquille O’Neal and Utah Jazz star Donovan Mitchell generated a lot of chatter both on social media and across sports talk shows nationwide. While O’Neal tried to play off his words to Mitchell about doubting whether he can be good enough to help the Utah Jazz be great as motivation, many saw the tactic as a complete failure, only serving to embarrass Mitchell on national television.
That chatter was not confined to Twitter, as both LeBron James and Kevin Durant commented on an Instagram post from user CuffsTheLegend, where James said there is a big difference between “constructive criticism” and “soft hating.” James also said that most of the time when it comes from older players, it has unfortunately been a majority of hate.
kingjames: There’s a difference between constructive criticism and soft hating though. I’ve seen it both ways come my way, mostly the hate. You can hear it in their delivery.
So while James didn’t directly address what O’Neal said to Mitchell, it seems pretty clear that he doesn’t think it helped.
