The Memphis Grizzlies picked up a 116-107 win over the Golden State Warriors on Monday evening. Despite the team being in the midst of a, quite frankly, unbelievable injury crisis, Memphis defended its homecourt thanks in large part to the play of rookie forward GG Jackson.
A former 5-star recruit who spent one up-and-down year at South Carolina and went in the second round of the 2023 NBA Draft, Jackson has started to get a little more run as the injuries pile up in Memphis. Monday ended up being the best game of his young career, as he went for 23 points on 6-for-9 shooting with six rebounds, two blocks, two steals, and an assist. And after the game, Jackson got to talk to the Inside the NBA guys, which meant he got to talk to Shaquille O’Neal, which meant he got to geek out over Shaq praising him.
.@_ggjackson‘s reaction to hearing @SHAQ in his postgame interview
pic.twitter.com/zAeZJlFqpa
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) January 16, 2024
You could already tell that he was in a great mood — he called talking to them a “dream come true” — and then, at the 1:18 mark, Shaq chimes in and Jackson’s face just lights up.
“I don’t have any questions,” Shaq said. “I just wanna say congratulations, young fella. You’ve played a hell of a game. And if people didn’t know who you were, they know who you are now. I’m so proud of you, congratulations on being ready, brother.”
Charles Barkley then chimed in with a joke, which led to Shaq telling Chuck to count the rings. Jackson, who turned 19 less than a month ago, loved all of this, and honestly, if all of this happened to me when I was 19, I’d probably have the exact same reaction.