Shaquille O’Neal has hit out at Kanye West after the rapper called out the basketball legend’s friend and Authentic Brands Group’s (ABG) billionaire owner Jamie Salter on social media.
Both O’Neal and West were at the Super Bowl in Las Vegas and the four-time NBA champion appeared to suggest the rapper snubbed him at Allegiant Stadium.
The pair have clashed in the past when West seemed to question O’Neal and Salter’s business relationship.
ABG own the rights to O’Neal’s name and the TNT analyst owns a large stake in the company but West took to social media to question who had the ‘extra one per cent for control and voting rights’ in their partnership.
O’Neal hit back and told the controversial artist to ‘worry about your business’. He even quoted West by adding ‘to quote the great Kanye West “I got more money than you, so why would I listen to you”.’
West took to social media again on Tuesday night to suggest Salter had cut all contact with him in recent months.
He posted: ‘DOV CHARNEY IS MY BROTHER AND ME AND MY WIFE’S BUSINESS PARTNER WHEN JAMIE SALTER AND EVERYONE ELSE WOULDN’T TAKE MY CALLS HE LET ME SLEEP AT HIS FACTORY DOV CHARNEY JONAH HILL AND JON RAFMAN ARE 3 PEOPLE WHO INSPIRED MY APOLOGY.’
O’Neal quickly jumped to the defense of his business partner, suggesting West chose not to speak to him in person at the Super Bowl.
He replied: ‘Who cares stop b****in and snitchin. I know you saw me at the Super Bowl i was waiting for u to say something smart. man up. nobody wanna see u cryin man up lil boy’. He has since deleted the post.
O’Neal and West also clashed over Kyrie Irving, when the Dallas Mavericks star controversially promoted a film that contained anti-Semitism.
It comes after both men had very different experiences with Taylor Swift on Sunday.
The singer allegedly had West removed from the Super Bowl after the rapper tried to upstage her on Sunday night, according to former NFL star Brandon Marshall.
Swift is said to have ‘made a call’ to have Kanye booted out after he intentionally bought seats at Las Vegas’s Allegiant Stadium that were in front hers.
Marshall – a retired NFL wide receiver – suggested Kanye, 46, was strategically placing himself in front of Taylor to photobomb any footage of her during the game’s broadcast.
‘[Kanye] was trying to leverage her celebrity,’ Marshall said on the I AM ATHLETE podcast. ‘[So] Taylor Swift gets p****d off. She boom boom makes a call or two. Everybody’s involved. He gets kicked out the stadium.’
It is unclear where Marshall got his information from and there is nothing to suggest any truth in his allegations.
The former NFLer did also initially confuse Swift with fellow popstar Katy Perry when making the wild claims.
However, if true, the incident represents a resounding victory for Swift in her years-long feud with the controversial rapper — starting back in 2009 when Kanye stormed the stage at the VMAs and embarrassed Taylor as she was accepting an award for Best Female Video.
Meanwhile, O’Neal posted a pic showing off the moment he was able to meet the pop superstar for the first time in Las Vegas. Shaq was seen alongside Jamie Salter and the ‘Cruel Summer’ singer.
‘Finally met @taylorswift,’ the post was captioned. ‘me and @jamiejsalter gifted her a NFL Judith Lieber bag.’
That bag is a purse in the shape of a football that is covered in crystals and retails for $4,000.
It’s made by the company Judith Lieber, which creates crystal-covered bags in the shape of other objects like disco balls, cameras, and a pair of lips among others.
