Shaquille O’Neal is known throughout the world as the lovable, huggable, giving, gentle giant that is with $500M and goes into grocery stores and toy stores and buys everyone gifts.

His persona, which began during his dominance in the NBA has always been tied to comedy, but over the years more information has come out about how petty Shaq really is and how if you cross him in any way, he will use his power and influence and even money to dig up dirt on you or get back at you.

We know that Shaq has had several back-and-forth spats with Dwight Howard, who was the second former Orlando Magic player to get his jersey retired, over the past few years.

Shaq also had some beef with Shannon Sharpe, which resulted in Shaq making a diss track. about the Hall of Famer, whose sexuality has come into question from time to time. We thought that had died out, but then bombshell audio surfaced allegedly of former NBA player and “All That Smoke” podcast host Matt Barnes claiming that Shaq is offering money for dirt on Sharpe.

Audio Catches Matt Barnes Saying Shaq Is Offering Money For Dirt On Shannon Sharpe
So DJ Akademiks played the clip of Barnes which was originally posted on controversial blogger Tasha K’s Instagram page. Tasha K then posted alleged private messages she received from Barnes, who was angered over the post and claimed it was faked.

The audio sounded like Barnes: “I was in a group chat yesterday and Shaq said he’s paying top dollar for any information on ole’ boy. So I don’t know if you’re on that kind of time or not but Shaq is known to throw large sums of money around so I just wanted to put that out there.”

“Y’all keep playin and ima sue you for this s—. This AI doctored auto. Y’all some clowns.” In another message, he added, “Y’all post me again w some bulls—t & ima sue you.” The 45-year-old former star with the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors wrote in another message, “Haha…you should know I have no issue admitting when I’ve f—d up.”

DJ Akademiks Says Shaq Is Very Petty & On Demon Time

Upon finding out that Shaq was ready to pay money for dirt on Sharpe, DJ Akademiks chimed in with his opinion, after playing the audio. He says Shaq has also been holding a grudge against him for years.

“We love Shaq so much but you know Shaq has been involved in all kinds of sh*t, paying for all kinds of sh*t,” said Akademiks, who claimed on his live stream that Shaq tries to smash every girl he has.

“We are thinking Shaq is like this lovable, Superman guy…Shaq doesn’t like Shannon Sharpe?” Akademiks asked, seemingly unaware of the past beef between the two sports bosses.

“Shaq is like a fucken demon,” said Akademiks. “Shaq DM’d three of my ex’s already. He’s too petty. Shaq’s still on my ass…Shaq got beef with me over me posting about him sliding up in the DMS of a 20-year-old chick at Footlocker. I remember he called me mad. Cock blocking.”

Shaq vs. Shannon Sharpe Beef Started Over NBA MVP
Who would be surprised if what Barnes is saying is true? ‘These allegations come a year after the Club Shay Shay host and ESPN analyst, Sharpe, became engaged in a heated convo over the NBA MVP.

Sharpe felt that Denver Nuggets star center Nikola Jokic deserved to win his third MVP in four years. Rather than congratulate a fellow center for doing something he couldn’t, O’Neal told Joker to his face in an NBA on TNT interview that he felt that the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander should’ve won.

Sharpe disagreed and said on his The Nightcap podcast with Ochocinco that he believed that O’Neal’s criticism of Jokic was based in envy and hate because Joker was accomplishing things at the position that Shaq never did. Shaq has always said that jealousy is his main motivation at times. So with Shaq having only been named MVP once in his career, Sharpe and fans felt that Shaq only picked SGA for MVP because he doesn’t want Joker accumulating accolades that already exceed Shaq’s lengthy resume.

From that beef, Shaq decided to drop a diss track on Shannon Sharpe

There were people who felt that Shaq’s move was a bit bush league, and Shannon called him on it.

Shaq clearly got offended by the suggestion that his support of SGA was rooted in some kind of personal campaign against the three-time MVP. His response on social media spiraled into a personal assault on Sharpe and his rise in media:

“If you ain’t ranked in the Top 10 in your profession then you can’t speak to me,” Shaq quipped. “I know what you did to get where you are. Me jealous, sounds like you are jealous.”

If we are being honest, Sharpe is probably top 5 in the sports talk host/podcast/media personality game. His Katt Williams pod did 68 million views and it was off to the races. Sharpe’s pod introduced him to a whole other female and gossip audience who don’t watch ESPN every morning.

As for the beef, this entire exchange sounded like some schoolyard banter, but we all love the drama. We also know that Shannon has a history of being one of the few people in the industry who will criticize Shaq or call him out on something.

Then Shaq went to the lowest-hanging fruit by boasting about his net worth, estimated to be around $500 million compared to Sharpe’s ($15 million), writing, “I work less than you but I’m worth more than you.”

Even lower would be paying money to dig up dirt on someone who did nothing but tell the truth.

Shannon Sharpe vs. Shaq Like Kendrick vs. Drake?
Shaq’s healthy assault on Sharpe’s personal accomplishments and his road to success mirrored the recent rap battle between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, where dirty laundry and direct personal assaults turned the battle into a dung-tossing parade, transcending the mastery of the lyrical exchange and giving everybody a bad taste in their mouths. Lamar’s Super Bowl performance was the knockout blow.

Big dogs of the culture, pockets full of money, going at it on social media as the people gobble it up like a free gravy and biscuits from one of Shaq’s Big Chicken restaurants.

Shannon’s Response To Shaq’s Evisceration: Shaq’s Work Ethic
Shannon responded on his “Nightcap” podcast with former NFL star Ochocinco, first reading Shaq’s social media offering line-for-line, while interjecting his own commentary to dispute the authenticity and accuracy of Shaq’s words.

“I’ve never professed that I was as great as Shaq,” Sharpe told Ochocino, who looked totally confused about the matter. “But what I will say I got what I got because I worked my ass off.

“Now Shaq is the one that said he didn’t work as hard, he didn’t train as hard, he didn’t eat as well as he should have. Shaq is the one that every time someone wins an MVP, he says he shoulda been MVP over Steve Nash,” Sharpe added.

Shannon went on to pat himself on the back because of his willingness to concede that players such as Gronk and Antonio Gates and Tony Gonzalez were better than him historically, which is something Shaq would never do or say about the centers who succeeded him in the game. He calls ’em all “barbecue chicken.”

“Am I a top 100 player? No? Am I the equivalent as a football player to what (Shaq) was as a basketball player? No. But what I did is that I maximized that,” Sharpe said.

Sharpe Says He Maximized His Talent, Shaq Squandered His
“Do you believe that you gave everything you possibly could in basketball?” Sharpe asked Shaq via his podcast.

Shaq felt it was necessary to throw out his career accolades that are already well documented on Google as part of his belittling post on IG. So, Sharpe put his twist on things, adding:

“He’s the most dominant big man in the history of the game, but he got one MVP.”

Ouch.

For the most part, Shannon took the high road, but he definitely took shots.

“If We Gonna Tell Shannon Sharpe To Chill, We Have To Tell Shaq” | Shaquille O’Neal Responds To Mo’Nique, Then “Breakfast Club” Sacks Him For Cringy Ice Spice Love

Mudslinging matches have become all the rave these days between rappers, media, reality TV participants, it goes on and on. It also creates loads of money for the people who can keep the public engaged in the drama.

Wonder how Shannon feels knowing that Shaq was ready to pull a George Steinbrenner- Dave Winfield smear campaign (children Google that) on him!

Word to the wise out here; Don’t cross Big Deisel. He doesn’t play fair.