Featured Image Credit: Getty/The Big Podcast with Shaq/Screengrab
Topics: Basketball, Olympics, Shaquille ONeal
John McDougall
Topics: Basketball, Olympics, Shaquille ONeal
Basketball is one of the many sports being contested at the Olympics and has been for many years - but one of its most iconic stars in the form of Shaq has explained why he is not watching it at the Paris Games.
The Olympics is around its halfway stage in the French capital and the USA are fifth in the medal table as things stand, with China, Australia, France and Team GB ahead of them.
With basketball often being seen as an American sport, it is no surprise to see they have reached the knockout stages of the men's competition in Paris.
The American team finished top of their group after victories against Serbia and South Sudan.
The clash against Serbia was a 21-point victory for the Americans with a 110-84 win.
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And this was followed up with a 17-point triumph over South Sudan in the following encounter, with a 103-86 win being recorded.
Along with Serbia and the US, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Brazil and Greece have also qualified for the quarter-finals, which begin on August 6.
Shaq is a former Olympian himself, having won gold with the US team at the 1996 Games held on home soil in Atlanta, so you would think he would be tuning in to see how his countrymen get on.
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Well you'd be very wrong on that count, in fact, as he has confirmed he will not be watching the US team in their bid for gold in Paris.
And Shaq's reluctance to tune in appears to stem from how they performed in the five exhibition games in the lead-up to the Olympics.
Wins were secured against Canada, Australia and Serbia, but close defeats at the hands of South Sudan and Germany were just avoided.
In fact, the US team, which boasts the likes of LeBron James, beat South Sudan by only one point.
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And this seemed to turn Shaq off from watching the Olympics, as he explained on the latest edition of his podcast.
Speaking on The Big Podcast with Shaq, he said: "I am not even paying attention to the Olympics.
"They scare me. … It is like the fact they went 97 to 95 and they only beat South Sudan by one. Come on, bro! That’s never supposed to happen.
"A professional player is a professional player. Bad enough, we got all these Europeans.
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"If you don’t win by 20, I’m not impressed by it."