Angel Reese celebrates the LSU Tigers' title. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
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Shaquille O’Neal makes his living making provocative comments as a basketball analyst.

But O’Neal dropped a whopper Tuesday on The Big Podcast With Shaq. O’Neal and podcast partner Nischelle Turner were talking about LSU superstar Angel Reese, who recently led the Tigers to the women’s national basketball championship.

Turner began talking about Reese’s competitiveness, when O’Neal interrupted her.

“She’s probably the greatest athlete to ever come out of LSU sports,” O’Neal said. “You heard it here first. Male or female.”

“The best? Yourself included?” Turner said.

“Yes,” O’Neal said. “Because she delivered that package (national championship). A lot of us got that package and we still got the package in our truck. But she delivered that package. There’s a lot of names you could throw around, men and women but she’s probably the greatest athlete to ever come out of LSU because she got it done.”

“Joe Burrow got it done a couple of years ago, but she’s way more athletic than he is.”

It’s quite a proclamation by O’Neal, and you could argue there’s some recency bias involved. O’Neal himself was a two-time All-American at LSU who went on to make the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame. And it’s hard to forget “Pistol” Pete Maravich, a fellow Hall of Famer who averaged 44.2 points per game in his LSU career — a record that still stands more than 50 years later.

O’Neal alluded to Burrow, of course, but the Tigers also sent a bevy of other recent stars to the NFL, notably Ja’Marr Chase, Leonard Fournette, and Patrick Peterson.

Sports fans for the most part thought Shaq went a bit too far in his praise for Reese.

[NBA Central]

About Arthur Weinstein

Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.

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