SHARPE WORDS
Shannon Sharpe apologizes to Shaq for ‘offending him’ after NFL Hall of Famer’s beef with NBA legend boils over
O'Neal had dropped a diss track aimed at Sharpe
SHANNON Sharpe opened up on his feud with NBA icon Shaquille O'Neal.
The NFL legend, 56, apologized to Shaquille O'Neal during Cam Newton's Funky Friday podcast last week.
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The beef between Sharpe and O'Neal stemmed from the latter telling Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic that Oklahoma City Thunder's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander should've won the MVP over him.
Sharpe criticized O'Neal on his popular Nightcap podcast, saying that the Los Angeles Lakers legend, who has griped in the past about winning just one MVP, came across as jealous of Jokic's accomplishments.
O'Neal wasn't afraid to slam Sharpe's criticisms, writing in an Instagram post that "if you ain't ranked in the top ten in your profession, then you can't speak on Me."
The ESPN star Sharpe revealed to Newton that he and O'Neal haven't talked since then.
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"Shaq feels the way he feels, and he's perfectly fine to feel that way," Sharpe said. “I said what I said — I still think Shaq is a phenomenal basketball player, even though he minimized my career.
"The thing is, what I'm able to do, Cam, is that when I lay my head on a pillow at night, I know all I could get out of my career was three Super Bowls, a Hall of Fame [induction], and at the time of retirement, on all the tight end records.
"That's all I could get out of my career."
After Newton chimed in and said he hates, "Black people arguing with Black people," Sharpe made an admission on his beef with O'Neal.
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"I might have felt or thought the way I thought about Shaq in that moment, I didn't have to verbalize it," he said.
"I didn't have to say what I said in that moment, and I apologize for offending him.
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"But the apology doesn't matter because when you say to somebody, ‘if I offended you,' it only matters to you, because the person is equally as offended even though you didn't mean to do it.
"So that's where I am with that.
"I don't have any ill will towards Shaq, I don't have no problems with Shaq, he's a phenomenal businessman, he's done unbelievable, not only on the court but he's been even better off the court, if you can believe that given what he accomplished on the court."
The feud had ended when Inside the NBA TNT star O'Neal dropped a diss track aimed at Sharpe.
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In the song, O'Neal addressed Sharpe directly and claimed that the Denver Broncos icon is "way beneath me.
"Your whole demeanor is faker than new rapper beefy/ You’re soft before you get fly, you’d rather tweet me/ I was in three different cars when you was in three feet/ All I see is dollar signs, they coming in 3D,” O'Neal rapped.
"Make it hot, ain’t no way around my degrees/ You are not in my spot, you are like a peewee."
O'Neal has yet to comment on Sharpe's apology.
First Take viewing figures
First Take went from strength to strength under the guidance of Stephen A. Smith and Molly Qerim last year.
The weekday ESPN debate show averaged 496,000 viewers in 2023 - making it the most-watched year in program history.
Its December average of 611,000 was a 24% year-on-year increase compared to 2022.
The show also reported more than 250 million views on YouTube.
First Take was helped by the addition of Shannon Sharpe alongside Smith and Qerim after he left Fox Sports' Undisputed.
During Sharpe's NFL Hall of Fame career, he made the Pro Bowl eight times and won three Super Bowls.
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Since retiring, he has become a sports media star.
Sharpe regularly appears on ESPN's First Take alongside Stephen A. Smith.