Shaquille O’Neal Faces Backlash For Angel Reese Comments

Shaquille O’Neal is in some hot water after commenting on an outfit that WNBA player Angel Reese wore.

On the Thursday, October 24, episode of her “Unapologetically Angel” podcast, O’Neal, 52, discussed the differences between men and women’s basketball while touching on how lowering the rims could impact the WNBA.

“Imagine you in the same little shorts you had on at the Wild ‘N Out show dunking,” O’Neal shared, referencing the shorts Reese, 22, wore to the Wild ‘N Out Live Tour’s Chicago stop earlier this month. “You know how many T-shirts you’re gonna sell?”

Reese seemed uncomfortable at the comments before O’Neal jumped in saying that he wouldn’t buy the T-shirt himself.

“You’re not beautiful or good-looking — you are gorgeous,” he noted. “There’s a lot of gorgeous women in the NBA.”

Following the episode, O’Neal received a ton of online criticism for his comments.

“Angel Reese learned a painful lesson about men through Shaq in real time, I fear,” one user shared via X, while another said that the man she called uncle “failed her spectacularly. He could not help himself.”

Reese has yet to comment on the backlash.

Earlier this year, Reese, who was selected as the seventh overall pick in the 2024 WNBA draft, referred to O’Neal as a “father figure” who is “super inspiring” to her.

“He’s so genuine, he’s been there for me through tough times,” she explained to USA Today in January. “He just gets it, and there’s not a more perfect person for me to be tight with.”

Reese added that she has “fun” hanging out with O’Neal and that he would “help” her no matter what.

“He would do that even if I never played basketball again,” she noted to the outlet. “He doesn’t care about me as a player, he cares about me as a person.”

O’Neal echoed Reese’s sentiments last month, sharing that Reese reminds him of his own daughters. (O’Neal shares sons Myles, 27, Shareef, 24, and Shaqir, 21, and daughters Amirah, 22, and Me’arah, 18, with ex-wife Shaunie O’Neal, along with daughter Taahirah, 28, with ex Arnetta Yardbourgh.)

“Coming from where she’s coming from, sometimes you need that extra protector, and that was me,” O’Neal told VIBE in September. “I always let her know, ‘Anybody f– with you, holler at me.’ When she was going through her thing with Kim [Mulkey,] I was the one that got on the phone and was like, ‘Hey, this how you handle it, relax,’ and she did a wonderful, beautiful job.”