Shaq Claims Ben Simmons Messaged Him Following Critical Comments

Before the Philadelphia 76ers took on the Los Angeles Lakers at home last week, the NBA legend and TV personality Shaquille O'Neal got critical of disgruntled

Before the Philadelphia 76ers took on the Los Angeles Lakers at home last week, the NBA legend and TV personality Shaquille O'Neal got critical of disgruntled Sixers star Ben Simmons live on-air.

As Simmons has been holding out from the Sixers since the 2021-2022 NBA season started, the star guard hasn't seen the court yet this year. At this point, Simmons hopes his wishes of getting traded come true.

But as the 2022 NBA trade deadline quickly approaches, the likelihood of Simmons moving on as early as this year is slim. And as Simmons continues to hold out for numerous reasons, Shaq was highly critical when discussing the situation.

"I stay on big guys because I care about them," said Shaq, according to Adam Hermann of NBC Sports Philadelphia. "I want them to play a certain way. I want them to play at a certain level. The difference between [Embiid] and his soft partner [Simmons] is, he can take criticism without being a crybaby, and he still wants to play."

As expected, Shaq taking digs at Simmons went viral. And eventually, the message was received by Simmons, who then decided to reach out to the NBA Hall of Famer.

Reaching Out

On the latest episode of "The Big Podcast with Shaq," O'Neal discussed his frustrations with the Simmons saga in Philadelphia. As he believes Simmons should be on the floor helping out his MVP candidate teammate Joel Embiid, O'Neal feels frustrated for the five-time All-Star big man.

"He acting like a baby.”@Shaq went IN on Ben Simmons and says the Sixers star DM'd him mad for comments Shaq recently made on @NBAonTNT 

More on #TheBigPodcast: https://t.co/v263O0hCCc pic.twitter.com/LGl9dtOYHJ

— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) February 3, 2022

While discussing Simmons once again, Shaq revealed that Simmons messaged him on social media as he was expectedly frustrated with the judgment.

"He’s acting like a baby. He kind of got in my DM and said some things and I said some things back. I can’t [reveal what he said]. I can’t do that. All I said is ‘You’re leaving your man out there and you need to play.’ That’s all I said. Then he said some things but I’m not going to elaborate on what he said because that’s not cool. He’s probably mad. He’s mad because I’m his LSU brother, and I am. I’m still his brother.”

Shaq attempted to throw some tough love towards Simmons' way. When he did it with Embiid in past years, the Sixers' big man used it as motivation and got better. As we've learned recently from Ramona Shelburne's column over at ESPN, tough love doesn't work as well for Simmons.

Therefore, it shouldn't come as a shock that O'Neal's latest attempt to convince Simmons to take the court alongside Embiid once again was a shot and a miss.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.