Former NBA Champion Shaquille O’Neal feels Brooklyn Nets should trade off Kyrie Irving instead of James Harden

Brooklyn Nets star James Harden has been one of the big stars of the current NBA. He has been a topic of discussion all through the season but hardly any of the NBA fans thought that the Nets front office will be keen to ship out Harden for Ben Simmons.

It was reported earlier this month that Harden and Simmons could be a part of a trade deal between the Brooklyn Nets and the Philadelphia 76ers. Although the deal is inching closer every minute it has done been done yet.

The Beard has been overburdened with a lot of scoring to be done as star teammate Kyrie Irving was missing for varied reasons. Brooklyn Nets decided to not call Kyrie Irving at the start of the season due to his non-compliance with New York’s health and safety protocols. Kyrie has missed action till December before the guard was called back to feature for the Nets in their away games.

Kevin Durant has also struggled with injuries and has missed several matches this season. Hence the workload of leading the scoring has been with James Harden mostly. But now with news of Harden leaving the franchise has not been received well by the fans. Former Lakers star and NBA champion Shaquille O’Neal shared his take on the entire James Harden and Ben Simmons trade deal.

The Big Diesel admitted that instead of trading off Harden, the Nets should be getting rid of Kyrie Irving who has not been of much help this season. Shaquille recently hosted ‘The Big Podcast‘  where he shared his thoughts on the big trade talk on the NBA Trade Deadline.

“They need to trade the other guy (Kyrie Irving)… ..I’m not gonna say his name,” Shaq said.

“James’ (Harden) been there. He’s been playing. He came here to try to win a championship. He’s doing that under a lot of circumstances,” Shaq added.

During the off-season, there were talks of Kyrie Irving being shipped out of the  Brooklyn Nets. However, they could not make a solid move and Kyrie stayed with them this season. But the Nets sadly could not make use of him fully after he failed to comply with the New Yok’s health and safety rules and therefore he was not allowed to be featured for the Nets in the home matches.