Shaquille O'Neal says that Ben Simmons direct messaged him after Shaq called the 25-year-old All-Star guard a "crybaby" last week on TV.
"So he kind of got in my DM and said some things and I said some things back," Shaq said on The Big Podcast with Shaq.
"All I said was you leaving your man out there and you need to play," Shaq said, revealing what he said to Simmons in the conversation, referring to Joel Embiid. "That's all I said and he said some things, but I'm not going to elaborate on what he said because that's not cool. He was mad. He was probably mad because I'm his LSU brother and I am. I'm still his brother."
Shaq's podcast co-host Nischelle Turner tried to use context clues to guess what Simmons said to Shaq in the direct message.
"I can deduce within that, what Ben said to you was, 'It's not my fault and you don't know what you're talking about,'" she said.
"Yes, exactly that," Shaq replied.
Shaq that went on to talk about how he regrets arguing with the late, great Kobe Bryant about "whose team it was" when they were with the Lakers together, ultimately causing a breakup and costing them more championships.
ESPN's Ramona Shelburne reported earlier in the week that Simmons is unhappy that Embiid blamed the Sixers' semifinals loss to the Hawks on Simmons, while Simmons did not blame Embiid for his poor series against the Toronto Raptors in 2019.
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