Shaquille O’Neal Shares Kanye West Quote Video Amidst Social Media Argument
Shaquille O’Neal is continuing his feud with Kanye West on social media.
On Monday, O’Neal reposted an Instagram post from Cool Rap TV on his Instagram Story. The clip, which has since gained greater attention, was a compilation of outrageous West quotes from video interviews to commemorate the rapper’s 46th birthday.
“My greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see me perform,” West said in one clip, while others included him interrupting Sway Calloway during a “Sway in the Morning” radio show interview, comparing his past marriage to Kim Kardashian to Disney’s animated film “The Incredibles” and critiquing Lady Gaga’s 2010 creative director role at Polaroid.
O’Neal’s dispute with West, however, stems from their argument over Dallas Mavericks point guard Kyrie Irving’s antisemitic remarks on social mend in November 2022; O’Neal responded negatively to the athlete’s offensive behavior, which West responded to by dismissing O’Neal’s work with Authentic Brands Group’s Jamie Salters.
“When you’re as great at basketball as he is, people listen to you…It hurts me that we have to sit up here and talk about stuff that divides us,” O’Neal said on “NBA on TNT” at the time. “We have to sit up here and answer for what this idiot has done. I stand for equality of all people.”
Kanye West’s dispute with O’Neal is the latest entry in the ongoing saga of his Adidas partnership.
In October 2022, Adidas stated it had put its Yeezy partnership under review, following weeks of comments from the rapper accusing the German athletic brand for copying his designs, not giving him enough control over his products and not opening up Yeezy stores — as well as his ongoing offensive antisemitic rants towards the Jewish community.
The statement from Adidas came days after Ye’s controversial Yeezy SZN 9 fashion show, where he wore a black long-sleeved T-shirt with the words “White Lives Matter” emblazoned on the back. Kanye West reportedly wore the “White Lives Matter” T-shirt to the game Friday, but the controversial piece was covered with a paint-splattered hoodie.
Following the controversial Yeezy SZN 9 fashion show, he doubled down on his stance on Instagram despite the widespread backlash and took particular heat for his social media bullying of Vogue fashion editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, though he later met with her in Paris.
Aside from Adidas and Balenciaga, the Yeezy brand stated in September that it was terminating its contract with Gap, accusing the apparel brand of failing to fulfill certain contractual obligations, such as distributing Yeezy products in stores by the second half of 2021 and creating Yeezy Gap-branded stores.