NBA fans slam Shaquille O'Neal's 'creepy' and 'perverted' Angel Reese comments

Question

The NBA legend appeared on Reese's podcast, 'Unapologetically Angel,' where he pitched a few ideas to help WNBA stars level the playing field and earn as much as their male counterparts.

Answer 1

This claim is true. Shaquille O'Neal appeared on Angel Reese's podcast, Unapologetically angel, where he went into his ideas on how the WNBA could gain viewers and in turn, raise WNBA players salaries. He talked about how lowering the rim making it possible for WNBA players to dunk would greatly impact the amount of viewers. He goes on to say “You're not beautiful or good-looking — you are gorgeous. There's a lot of gorgeous women in the WNBA.” This comment enraged many fans because of his clear sexualization of a woman who is younger than his children. He also brought up an outfit she wore a month prior stating, "Imagine you had on the same little shorts you had on at 'Wild 'n Out' show dunking. How many T-shirts you gon' sell?" These comments had fans unsettled and the NBA legend is now getting backlash in the media making this claim true.

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9BArJONkj0&t=584s

https://people.com/shaquille-o-neal-faces-backlash-over-angel-reese-tiny-shorts-comments-8735027

Answer 2

During the podcast, he brings up lowering the rim of the basketball hoop just for the WNBA. He states that the net is lower in Women's Beach Volleyball compared to Men's Beach Volleyball. He states the dunking on the rims will make people watch more, he sees it as taboo "seeing stuff that you're not supposed to see" and uses Caitlin Clark as an example of someone who does stuff that nobody has seen before (Shaq).

All I could find was a Tiktok video of his comment about 'Wild 'n Out and the outfit that was worn (the video is linked in the article). He does make comments that made the host uncomfortable. due to his tone of voice, it's hard to confirm if he was serious or not about suggesting women in the WNBA wearing outfits like these, regardless the comment was made.

Comments

I think it is important to add that even if he was joking, he was clearly making her uncomfortable, as you can see in the video and the transcripts. As the article points out, it's especially strange for him to be sexualizing her with the age difference, which is what led to so much backlash from fans, which is not exaggerated as we see the online comments in the article