Shaquille O’Neal has made it a habit in recent years to discredit modern day NBA players. Although he has primarily done it with other big men, like Rudy Gobert and Dwight Howard, his overall saltiness sometimes extends beyond just that position.

Recently, O’Neal appeared on The Big Podcast with his former Miami Heat teammate, Mario Chalmers, and delved into some comments Chalmers made a year ago.

At the time, Chalmers caused a major stir when he said that nobody who played against him feared LeBron James.

 

O’Neal decided to relitigate the matter on the podcast.

“So I’ve heard players say, including myself, I feared Mike,” O’Neal said. “I heard players of your generation say they feared Kobe. I never really heard any player say they feared LeBron.”

Chalmers then doubled down on his initial assessment that, in his words, got him in a lot of trouble.

“It’s not that you shouldn’t fear ‘Bron,” Chalmers continued. “I just think, at the end of the day, ‘Bron has been through so much that he wanted to be liked.”

O’Neal then agreed that James is a “nice guy,” though it is unclear whether that is a backhanded compliment or not.

 

Again, O’Neal made not be overtly criticizing James here – but is hard to view his assessment of guys not being afraid of James as anything but a negative.

You can spin it how you want – but the words speak for themselves.

Will James be able to win another title before retirement to officially shut haters like O’Neal up? Time will tell.