SUMMARY
- Shaquille O'Neal cancels Victor Wembanyama from the DPOY conversation because he's on a losing team.
- O'Neal believes deserves the award if they only based the winner completely off of stats.
Well, things got a little intense while Shaquille O’Neal shared his recent take on Victor Wembanyama. The NBA legend hasn’t ever backed down from speaking his mind and he certainly had no intention of doing so during NBA on TNT’s Postgame Show. While Candace Parker and Jamal Crawford discussed Wemby possibly winning the Defensive Player of the Year Award, O’Neal seemed extremely quiet.
However, the 4x NBA Champion couldn’t hold it in for much longer and he made a huge claim. He said, “I don’t know the rules and regulations. Him, as a single individual as the defensive player of the year? Hell yes. But you guys in the media, the new rules that you put in, his team’s not a winning team. So does that disqualify him from being the defensive player of the year? Yeah, if his team is not winning.” In Shaq’s defense, though Wembanyama has incredible stats, they haven’t necessarily helped the San Antonio Spurs win.
Shaquille O’Neal reveals a strong differentiator between Bol Bol and Victor Wembanyama
A couple of months ago, Shaquille O’Neal went viral for a controversial take on the hype behind Victor Wembanyama. If you haven’t forgotten, the No.1 overall pick was being compared to Kevin Durant or even Kristaps Porzingis. But many claimed that Wembanyama would even become a major entry in the GOAT debate as well. O’Neal was never impressed by what Wemby could do as he claimed this wasn’t the first athlete to be as great standing over 7 feet tall.
O’Neal claims that even Bol Bol was a good comparison to Wembanyama and that the rookie was nothing too special. However, after sharing his views on Victor possibly being named Defensive Player of the Year, Parker asked Shaq why Bol wasn’t competing for the DPOY title. He claimed that Bol isn’t as serious as Wemby is about basketball.
Victor Wembanyama still has a chance to beat Rudy Gobert for the DPOY title
When you compare the stats between Rudy Gobert and Victor Wembanyama, the difference between their productivity on the floor is night and day. Victor averages 3.9 blocks per game while Gobert, a 3x DPOY has put up only 2.1 blocks per game this season. Gobert hasn’t recorded too many steals either while the Spurs center averages 1.2 steals per game. Unfortunately, the Spurs aren’t succeeding with Wembanyama’s defense.
Games with 5+ blocks this season:
Victor Wembanyama- 24
Rudy Gobert – 3 pic.twitter.com/TuZompVXH8— Spurs Culture (@SpursCulture) April 10, 2024
The Minnesota Timberwolves have the best defensive rating in the entire league, while the Spurs rank amongst the worst. This was exactly what O’Neal tried explaining as well. However, there is still a chance that a -3030 Gobert could lose to a +850 Wembanyama. And this is through votes.