Dwight Howard has once again sparked his feud with Shaquille O’Neal and suggested that they should “go ahead and squabble” if necessary.
“I never disrespected him,” Howard said of Shaq on The GAUDs Show. “But he always has something to say. There have been times when I’ve gotten upset and thought, ‘Hey, Shaq, this needs to stop, man.’ I tried to talk to him about it.”
Dwight then shared how while competing on Dancing With the Stars last year, he met someone close to Shaq who proposed that they settle their disagreement once and for all.
“At this point, I’m thinking, ‘Should we settle this with a physical confrontation? What are we doing?’” Dwight said. “Because I have never — I’ve only ever imitated his voice. But what else can I imitate about him? He’s Shaquille O’Neal, the most dominant center ever. But he keeps making comments about me. So I’m like, ‘Hey man, do we really need to settle this with a confrontation?’”
He continued, “The thing that bothers me the most is that he always thought I was trying to be like him or emulate him,” Howard said. “But if I did want to be like you or emulate you, shouldn’t you take that as a compliment to show how great you are as a player or a person? I never wanted to be Shaq at any level. Now, have I wanted to learn certain things from him, from his life and incorporate them into my life? Absolutely. I do that with Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, LeBron James, all these people.”
Shaq saw Howard’s remarks and responded on X, promising to never mention Howard’s name again.
“The fact that you think I care about you is amusing, but I will never mention your name again sensitive big man, a joker who can’t take a joke,” Shaq wrote on X. “I will never say your name again. Have a great day and now you have been deleted. Have a great day.”
Dwight replied on X, still claiming that Shaq is envious of NBA stars.
“I know you care. Because your insecure self has been hating and talking smack for 20 years,” Howard wrote. “You’re too big to be this insecure. I hope you don’t mention my name again. 52 years old tweeting me. And still hating. Now after all this time, you were joking. You have always been jealous. Jealous of Kobe Bryant, Penny Hardaway, Dwyane Wade. You’re also envious of Charles Barkley.”
“Go on, move around, big lazy insecure self. I still have that long 5-paragraph direct message you sent me a few years ago, telling me that I’m not great enough to hate. And you’re still doing it. It’s 2025, grow up and move on.”
