“I wonder what French barbecue chicken tastes like.… I’m backing his little skinny a** down" - Shaquille O'Neal gives a furious response to Rudy Gobert's claims of guarding him

Shaquille O'Neal was a seven-foot-one, 325 pound center who could run and dunk like nobody else his size.

Shaquille O'Neal was the quintessential big man. The most dominant center of all-time, Shaq was a paint-dominant scorer and an elite rim-protector.

At a time when zone defenses were largely underutilized, Shaquille O'Neal was a force to be reckoned with. However, Rudy Gobert, a three-time Defensive Player of the Year, believes he could lock up O'Neal.

Rudy fires back at Shaq in our comments 👀🍿 https://t.co/ReqZZ6Z6WZ

To which O'Neal, on TNT's "Inside the NBA," responded:

“I wonder what French barbecue chicken tastes like.… Like I said, I’m backing his little skinny a– down. I’m throwing a bow, and I’m dunking.”

For anyone familiar with just how dominant Shaquille O'Neal was in his prime, the scales did not tip in Gobert's favor on this occasion.

Stephen A. Smith, on ESPN's "First Take," perfectly summed up what an O'Neal-Gobert one-on-one matchup would look like, stating:

"Shaq would be arrested for what he'd do to Rudy Gobert."

Below is a reminder of what O'Neal was capable of in his prime.

Gobert: "I would lock his ass up."

https://t.co/aAbnlrWmD0

His size, strength and athleticism were too much for an entire generation of NBA players to deal with. Gobert locking him up is certainly an overstatement, to say the least.

How would Shaquille O'Neal fare in today's game?

Shaquille O'Neal could've easily held his own in today's game.

Despite the game being largely predicated on perimeter prowess today, Shaquille O'Neal would get by with ease. We don't need to look further than Giannis Antetokounmpo to analogize Shaq's presence in the NBA today.

The Achilles heel of Shaq's game was his shooting. To understand just how poor of a shooter O'Neal was, take a look at Shaq's shooting numbers from his 1999-2000 MVP season, cross-referenced with distance to the basket:

Distance	FGM	FGA	FG%
<5 ft.	617	860	71.7
5-9 ft.	294	661	44.5
10-14 ft.	42	136	30.9
15-19 ft.	3	7	42.9

Of note here are two facts. Almost the entirety of what Shaq did in his prime was within five feet of the basket. His efficiency and volume took massive hits when he tried to shoot from around the free-throw line (15 ft. from the basket). He barely ever worked in the mid-range, let alone the three-point line.

Here are Giannis Antetokounmpo's eerily similar shooting numbers from his 2018-19 MVP season, cross-referenced with distance to the basket:

Distance	FGM	FGA	FG%
<5 ft.	583	803	72.6
5-9 ft.	31	101	30.7
10-14 ft.	23	55	41.8
15-19 ft.	28	70	40

The only real differences are their FG% from around the free-throw line, and the fact that Giannis did attempt a bunch of threes in 2018-19 as opposed to O'Neal in 1999-00.

Despite being a shot-blocker, O'Neal was a defensive liability to an extent. That's a burden the Milwaukee Bucks don't have to bear with the former defensive player of the year.

However, for anyone who believes that just because NBA teams put a premium on the three-point shot, Shaq wouldn't have made it today, the numbers tell a different story.