Shaquille O’Neal is not going to easily live down his recent mistake regarding the Detroit Pistons. Some of his media rivals are determined to make sure of it.
Richard Jefferson took a shot at Shaq during ESPN’s “NBA Countdown” prior to the Pistons’ game against the Miami Heat on Wednesday. Jefferson made it a point to call out Shaq for wrongly identifying the Pistons’ coach as Chauncey Billups in a recent TNT segment.
“Contrary to popular belief, Chauncey Billups is not their head coach. It’s JB Bickerstaff,” Jefferson said before winking directly at the camera.
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— Vito Corleonie (@VCorleonie) March 19, 2025
Shaq went viral for making that mistake on TNT last week. It also led to some significant criticism, since the entire situation made it pretty obvious that O’Neal has not been paying any real attention to the Pistons this season.
There is another layer to this. Shaq and the TNT crew have never had a particularly high opinion of ESPN’s NBA coverage. Jefferson no doubt knows that, and was not going to miss the opportunity to get a shot in.
The Pistons won Wednesday’s nationally televised game against Miami on a Cade Cunningham buzzer-beater, which lifted them to 39-31 on the season. They are doing this despite winning 14 games last season and having no real expectations coming into this one.
Detroit has certainly embraced the underdog narrative this year. People are starting to take notice, and that includes Jefferson, who is not going to end up on the Pistons’ bad side.
