This season’s NBA schedule has sparked plenty of debate, with a number of players having criticised the schedule after a series of injuries, despite the fact that the number of games has reduced.
One of the main critics is LeBron James, whose opinion is always taken into account. James is concerned about players’ welfare and attributed it to the lack of rest. The Los Angeles Lakers star also claimed, however, that he understood the business aspect of the season.
Yet, Shaquille O’Neal did not take fondly to James‘ comments, arguing that athletes still receive huge sums of money while many ordinary people have been fired during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, he argues, they have no right to complain.
“When you’re living in a world where 40 million people have been laid off and I’m making 200 million dollars, you won’t get no complaining from me,” O’Neal said. “I’d play back to back to back to back to back.
“I’m not knocking what anybody said, but me personally, I don’t complain and make excuses, because real people are working their tail off and all we’ve got do is train two hours a day and then play a game for two hours at night and make a lot of money… so my thought process is a little different.”
Next season, teams will have a full pre-season to rest. The injuries were the worst consequence of this accumulation of games, but hopefully next season there will be a lot less.