Shaq Torches 76ers Star Ben Simmons for Playing Scared in Team’s Season-Ending Loss: ‘I Would Have Knocked His A** Out’

After losing Game 7 to the Atlanta Hawks Sunday night, Philadelphia 76ers star Ben Simmons was the easiest target to blame.

Considered a foundation player for the Sixers franchise, Simmons scored just 5 points in 35 minutes during Game 7, and looked scared to shoot the basketball throughout the entire series. Simmons took four shots in the Sixers knockout loss to Atlanta, and had zero field goal attempts in the final quarter.

Despite shouldering the blame, admitting, “I didn’t do enough for my teammates,” after the loss, Simmons was unable to earn any sympathy from Shaquille O’Neal.

“If I played Game 1 and 2 and I know I’m not helping my teammates, what do you think I’m going to do in Game 3? It don’t take seven games to realize that, I don’t wanna hear that man,” Shaq said Sunday night on Inside the NBA. “It don’t take seven games for you to know you’re not playing right, get right! Get right! He’s not getting double-teamed, get right, be aggressive, that’s all I want, just be aggressive. I don’t want to hear all that, stop that, cut it out.”

“If he was in my locker room I would have knocked his ass out,” Shaq added. “I don’t want to hear that man, get out of my face with that.”

Before Game 7, Shaq looked into the camera and told Simmons to “man up, stop messing around.” But Simmons failed to come through, lacking any sort of offensive aggressiveness and drawing even more ire from O’Neal.

Watch above via, TNT