After the Denver Nuggets secured the 130-127 win over the Warriors, we know someone at the TNT studio was excited. Shaquille O’Neal knew then that he would get to throw more of his Serbian vocabulary at Nikola Jokic. Unfortunately, the Big Aristotle‘s Serbian was not at par once more.
The Warriors and Nuggets were tied at 127 in the last few seconds. It was Jokic’s last-minute 3-pointer a second before the clock ran out that sealed their win. The Joker went for 34 points, 9 rebounds, and 10 assists in 38 minutes, giving the Nuggets five straight road wins. So Shaq wanted to convey his admiration.
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He mistakenly spoke Russian once again leaving his one and only tutor, Jokic frustrated and denouncing him. “No, it’s not Shaq. Come on, brother, it’s second time.” The Joker clowned Shaq hilariously and left the Inside Crew in stitches. He should’ve listened to Chuck and, “master English first.”
It must’ve irked the 7’1″ linguistic enthusiast when Kenny “The Jet” Smith opened the interview with a perfect sentence in Serbian. He earned a genuine, “Oh, I like it, good job,” from the 2x MVP. It just made the others goad Shaq into bringing out his Serbian skills.
O’Neal used the wrong language and burst out in embarrassment, “Oh, that’s right, that’s Russian.” Strike Two, Big Diesel.
Shaq’s linguistic transgressions
The only reason Shaquille O’Neal roots for The Joker is so he’d come on Inside the NBA to test out his Serbian skills. Though Shaq is there enthusiastically, geographically he’s not. O’Neal has the tendency to mix up the language of Jokic’s home country with a completely different one.
In 2022, Shaq asked Jokic if he ever saw himself in the NBA while growing up in Serbia. Jokic responded that Shaq was the most dominant center in the NBA at that time and he didn’t think he could match him. Touched by that response, O’Neal tried to say thank you in ‘Serbian.’ That erased Jokic’s affection right there as he yelled out, “That is Russian.”
Jokic was kind enough to count only two strikes against Shaq. He said thanks in Russian in 2021 once too before he was informed The Joker is Serbian. His response was, “He’s not Russian? I thought he was Russian.” So O’Neal and Jokic’s linguistic tradition is going strong in 2024 too.
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