"You talk a lot of s**t": Shaquille O'Neal reveals why Angel Reese is his top pick over Caitlin Clark & other WNBA players

Modified Oct 25, 2024 03:15 GMT

Shaquille O'Neal was perhaps the first big name who believed in Angel Reese. When Reese still played with LSU, Shaq and the Reebok signed the Chicago Sky rookie, giving her one of the biggest deals of her career.

Reese always plays with high intensity on the basketball court, something that she continues to do in the WNBA. On the latest episode of her podcast, "Unapologetically Angel," Reese asked Shaq about his first impression of her.

"[4:30] I though you were beautiful of course," Shaq said. I though you play with a passion. I figured you were gonna do it your way and you talk a lot of shi*t and back it up. So you are my type of player."

Shaq has been a great investor and even this time, he hit the ball out of the park. He was one of the people who reached out to Reese when she was involved in a possible beef with her LSU coach Kim Mulkey. Shaq convinced her to ditch the issue and continue to perform on the court.

Since being drafted, Angel Reese has broken multiple decades-long records in the league. She is showing an early sign of being one of the greatest rebounders, if not the greatest two-way players in the league.

Angel Reese responds to Shaquille O'Neal's question about Caitlin Clark

The rivalry between Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark was one of the biggest attractions of this WNBA season. Two rookies brought the biggest crowd in the arena and one of the largest numbers of viewership in a WNBA game.

However, despite their rivalry, Reese and Clark have been true admirers of each other's game. On her podcast, Reese discussed the popularity of the WNBA with Shaq when the latter asked the WNBA star why Clark was so popular.

[07:59] "She can shoot 3s from logo," Reese replied.

The NBA legend then went on to equate Clark with Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry. He said that one of the reasons that he loved Curry was because he was the first of his kind.

"We've never seen that before. That's my point," O'Neal said. "You know why I love Steph Curry? 'Cause I've never seen that before. I've seen it a little bit in Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, but I've never seen a guy consistently come down."

Interestingly, the NBA legend told Angel Reese that one of the reasons that the WNBA doesn't have as much popularity was because it missed dunking. The four-time NBA champion said that if the WNBA players started dunking, the money and the popularity would go off the roof.