Shaq re Mask Mandate: 'You shouldn’t be forced to take something you don’t want'

O’Neal, the Basketball Hall of Famer who won NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat during his career, encouraged his listeners on "The Big Podcast with Shaq" to "be safe and "take care of your family." But he disagreed with forcing those people who don’t want it to get it.

"But it’s just, people don’t want to take it, and you shouldn’t be forced to take something you don’t want," he said.

O’Neal and his co-hosts Nischelle Turner and Anthony "Spice" Adams spoke about the New York nurses who were accused of making more than $1 million over fake vaccine cards. O’Neal said the two shouldn’t be sent to jail and gave Turner a hypothetical scenario regarding her work on "Entertainment Tonight."

O’Neal and Turner debated whether it was fair for a private company to dismiss someone who doesn’t receive the COVD-19 vaccine. The former center suggested a worker shouldn’t have to make the decision to get vaccinated if it was "going against (their) morals."

Turner said she disagreed with O’Neal and said if a worker doesn’t want to comply with the company rules then there’s the door.

"I’m with you on the rules because I’m a rules guy," O’Neal said. "But I do feel sympathetic towards people who have to make that kind of decision."

Turner replied: "I don’t. Not when you’re putting other people at risk."