Always the businessman, our man Shaq got in a great plug for one of his OG sponsors last night… while at the same time slamming the actions of the New Orleans Pelicans biggest star.
That superstar is none other than Zion Williamson, who had his personal best game of the season on Tuesday night in the NBA Play-In Tournament game against the Los Angeles Lakers. As well as he played, it wasn’t enough, as the Lakers beat the Pels 110-106. More on what that means to the Playoff tournament in a moment.
The game might have turned out differently, but – unfortunately for the hometown Pelicans fans – Williamson was out of the game for the final minutes. Williamson scored 40 in the loss. Would have been interesting to see what would have happened if he was on the floor to the final buzzer.
On Inside the NBA after the game, host Earnie Johnson revealed that Williamson exited the game early when he developed what was called left-leg soreness. How did that go over with the rest of the Inside crew? Not so well…
Insider-ers Shaq and Barkley were surprised and frustrated by the announcement. Shaq put it into wods first, saying on live TV, “Rub some Icy Hot on that thing, Chico.” Nice little shout-out to one of Shaq’s longest commercial partners. He’s been doing Icy Hot TV commercials and other promotions for over 20 years.
The BIG Podcast with SHAQ
For his part, Barkley had similar thoughts, saying, “I’m not sure I would have came out the game.”
After the game, there was not a lot of info to be had about the extent of Williamson’s injury. If you follow the NBA and the Pelicans, you know the former Duke star has had an issue with injuries throughout the start of his NBA career.
Even with the loss, the Pelicans are not out of the NBA Tournament. They’ll play the Sacramento Kings for the right to become the 8th seed in the West and go up against the number one seed, the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Speaking of the Kings. In the other Play-In game of the night, those Kings beat the Golden State Warriors by a final score of 118-94. The loss put an end to the season for the Dubs and Steph Curry. Big questions are already in the air as to what off-season moves the Warriors make.
It’s clear that Curry will most likely never play with any other team… he’s just too big a star, too beloved in the Bay area. In last night’s game, Steph was the only Warriors player to reach the 20-point mark, tallying 22 points on 8/16 shooting. Klay Thompson didn’t record a single point in the loss, going 0/10 from the field and 0/6 from three.
It took zero time after the game for calls for big changes for the Warriors. Shaq said that the Warriors “Need to get younger” if they want to keep competing for a title next season. Within minutes, social media posts were all over that idea. See below:
What happens to the Warriors next season? Time will tell. Right now this season is still to be decided. In the East, the Chicago Bulls play the Atlanta Hawks tonight (as of this posting) and the Philly 76ers play the Miami Heat in their respective Play-In games.