Former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal got caught on Tuesday’s “Inside the NBA” saying that he isn’t as up-to-date when it comes to smaller market teams. The crew discussed the recent success of the Detroit Pistons, and O’Neal had nothing but praise for the organization. However, he made a mistake by mentioning the franchise’s previous star, Chauncey Billups, as the current head coach of the team.
Billups played for the Pistons for eight seasons, from 2002 until 2009, leading the team to the NBA Finals in 2004. That year, they faced the Los Angeles Lakers, led by none other than O’Neal. Detroit lasted five games against the Lakers and won the Larry O’Brien trophy, with the five-time All-Star taking home Finals MVP honors. In his final season in the league (2013-14), Mr. Big Shot had his final stint with the franchise.
While Billups is almost synonymous to the organization, he never had a coaching position with the Pistons. O’Neal mistook the former star player as the head coach of the Cade Cunningham-led team, instead of J.B. Bickerstaff.
“I like the way he’s (Cunningham) playing, I like what Chauncey is doing, those guys play hard,” O’Neal said.
Former WNBA star Candace Parker had to interrupt the four-time champion and check if she heard him say Billups is the Pistons’ head coach. O’Neal doubted himself but asked if the former guard was the coach of the team.
“Chauncey’s the coach, right?”
He was corrected by his co-hosts and admitted that he doesn’t watch Detroit games. Then he admitted that he had been wrong.
“First of all, I don’t watch Detroit, how about that? I don’t watch them… I made a mistake.”
The former Lakers star wasn’t entirely wrong about Billups, as he is a head coach in the NBA. However, he leads the Portland Trail Blazers, a job he’s had since June 2021.
Shaq’s comments about the Detroit Pistons came after he called the team “boring”
The Detroit Pistons have turned things around for their franchise this season. They’ve climbed up the sixth spot in the Eastern Conference with a 37-29 record. The team’s performance this year is far better as they were at the bottom of the conference with a 14-68 record.
While the team has received praise for what they’ve done, some still don’t believe in them. O’Neal is among those people who called the team “boring” on his show “The Big Podcast with Shaq.”
“If you put on the Detroit Pistons right now…” His co-host Adam Lefkoe said on the latest episode of the podcast (53:03).
“Bro, stop it, they’re boring too,” said Shaq.
“You want to brag about a team that’s 32-26? Stop it. That’s not success. 40-20. We talked about it. Bro, Detroit Pistons ain’t winning no f**king championship. Stop it.”
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Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen on Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
