Moms Step Into McGee-O'Neal Twitter War
OAKLAND (CBS SF) – There is never anything that quite matches a mom's wisdom when it comes to ending a schoolyard tiff.
Even if it is a digital playground and the combatants are grown men.
Shaquille O'Neal has used JaVale McGee's past on-court foibles as a running gag in his role as a NBA analyst on Turner Sports. Last week, McGee finally got to the breaking point and took to twitter to tell the former NBA star to stop harassing him.
The two then exchanged profanity laced Twitter tweets.
Over the weekend, McGee and O'Neal moms weighed in on the exchange that quickly became the talk of the sports world.
According to the Sporting News, McGee' mom – former WNBA and USC star Pamela McGee – told Shaq to stop using her son as a brunt of on-air jokes.
"If you really want to get technical with it, it's bullying," Pamela McGee told the Sporting News "We all have little jokes and stuff. But when you continue to pick on just one person — as his career is resurrecting — there's nothing to it but bullying."
"And it's unacceptable. You can't allow someone to continue to do this who represents TNT and the NBA. He is a representative of TNT and the NBA. Broadcasters are held to a higher authority. He should lose his job."
Meanwhile, in an interview with "The Undefeated" website, O'Neal said his mother has told him to knock it off.
"It's not funny anymore, seeing the things they're saying to each other," Shaq's mom Lucille told the website. "They need to squash this and move on."
Shaq told the website he'd honor his mom's request.
"Just say Shaq's mom called him, told him, 'Stop this silliness. Leave him alone,'" O'Neal told the website "So that's the end of the beef. You won't be hearing about it from my side anymore. Mama has spoken."