The Los Angeles Lakers pulled off a trade earlier this week. L.A. sent Kendrick Nunn and a trio of second-round picks to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Rui Hachimura, the former top-10 pick who should be able to bring a little bit of scoring to a team that could use it as they look to make a push for the play-in tournament.
The Lakers making a trade will always draw eyes, but this trade attracted a bit of attention due to some comments made by Shaquille O’Neal. On Tuesday, Shaq was part of TNT’s NBA crew and said that he did not know who Hachimura was before the deal got made.
“If you ain’t a top 10 player, I don’t know who you are… I’m not watching the Bullets or the Wizards.”
Shaq on not knowing who Rui Hachimura was before the Lakers acquired him from the Wizards#NBATwitter pic.twitter.com/soGdqlPIgq
— 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐧’ 𝐍𝐁𝐀 (@_Talkin_NBA) January 25, 2023
Shaq said this more explicitly on “The Big Podcast,” and that if the Lakers wanted to impress him, then the guy they needed to go from the Wizards get was Bradley Beal (something he also said on TNT). Now, seeing as how the Inside the NBA guys get some criticism when they do an annual segment where Charles Barkley is asked about where lesser-heralded players are now playing after they changed teams in the offseason, this did not go over especially well. The Hall of Fame big man got called out for this, and on Saturday, Kevin Durant joined in on things.
Shaquille doesn’t know ball? https://t.co/UPoBbOeG8g
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) January 28, 2023
Durant is no stranger to going back-and-forth with the Inside crew, as he and Barkley in particular have butted heads in the past.