Shaquille O'Neal Apologizes to Disabled Man He Made Fun of on Instagram; Still Deserves to be Punished

The NBA made a bold move by banning soon to be former Clippers owners Donald Sterling for life and fining him $2.5 million for racist comments made in private that become public. Silver recognized that they were made in private, but since they were made public the NBA needed to act--so it did.

With that in mind, TNT needs to follow suit and do something about Shaq for making fun of  a disabled man in a very public forum--Instagram.

@Shaq/Twitter

Jahmel Binion suffers from ectodermal dysplasia--an illness which prevents his teeth from fully forming and his hair from growing. Like many people he took a selfie and posted it to his Instagram account.

Somehow Shaq saw the photo and decided it would be a good idea to make fun of Jahmel.

Shaq has since taken it down, but the conscious thought was there. He wasn't talking to a girlfriend and recording things in private. He willingly put his hate out there for everyone to see.

But after Sterling is banned for life he tweets this:

Way to go, Commissioner Silver! The NBA stands for everybody!
— SHAQ (@SHAQ) April 29, 2014

With a backlash quietly building Shaq finally did the smart thing and apologized to Jahmel.

Made a new friend today when I called and apologized to Jahmel Binion. Great dude.#alwayslearning #MYBADCUZ
— SHAQ (@SHAQ) April 30, 2014

It's nice that he did the right thing in the end, but it took a social media backlash and a couple weeks for him to do it.

If the NBA stands for everybody like he claims than he should be punished as well. If his apology is good enough than is that all Sterling needed to do--absolutely not! TNT obviously operates separate from the NBA, but it needs to take a page out of the NBA's playbook.

TNT does not need to ban Shaq, but it certainly needs to throw the book at him--hard.

[MLive]

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