Shaquille O'Neal strikes again as he teases Rudy Gobert over France's exit from FIBA World Cup 2023

Shaquille O'Neal might be busy with his gigs as DJ Diesel this offseason, but he still has the time to troll Rudy Gobert. The LA Lakers legend took a shot at the Minnesota Timberwolves big man for getting knocked out of the 2023 FIBA World Cup in the group stage.

In a story shared on Instagram, O'Neal made fun of Gobert following France's surprise elimination from the FIBA World Cup. He posted an image of Gobert's quote about winning the tournament, but the Frenchman ended up losing their first two games to get eliminated.

Shaquille O'Neal pokes fun at Rudy Gobert's failure

France suffered a beating (95-65) against Canada in the first game of the FIBA World Cup in Indonesia. They followed that up with a heartbreaking 88-86 loss to Latvia in their second game to slip to 0-2 in the group and out of reckoning for the next round.

With Canada and Latvia having an identical 2-0 record, they qualified for the second round. France still has a game on hand, against Lebanon on Tuesday in a no-bearing matchup.

Before the FIBA World Cup, Rudy Gobert was confident about France's chances of winning the gold medal.

Les Bleus went into the tournament as back-to-back World Cup bronze medalists, as well as the reigning silver medal winners at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and 2022 EuroBasket.

"I really like the state of mind we have at this start of preparation," Gobert told L'Equipe last month.

"We are going to play a World Cup, where there are more matches than at the Olympic Games. We want to continue to progress every day, including during the competition. The end goal is to have the gold medal, the one we haven’t yet managed to get."

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Shaquille O'Neal has a beef with Rudy Gobert

Shaquille O'Neal and Rudy Gobert (right)

Shaquille O'Neal appeared to have reignited his beef with Rudy Gobert following his recent story on Instagram.

The feud between the two big men started in 2019 when Shaq told Gobert to "man up" after the then-Utah Jazz center teared up when he failed to make the All-Star team.

O'Neal continued to take shots at Gobert over the next couple of years. The Hall of Fame center was upset by how a center with barely any offensive skills got to earn more than $200 million in the NBA.

Gobert finally had enough last year when he responded to one of Shaq's remarks, commenting on an Instagram post that he would "lock his a** up."