But if you don’t, it doesn’t matter to me. I would like to think I know what I’m talking about. I would like to think I’m top-50, top-75 player, a great big man. But that’s the great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. So I was able to stop time and listen to the truth and be like, “O.K., maybe he’s right.” Now, if somebody else said that, I’d go off, try to punch him in the face. What the hell you talking about?īut a lot of criticism has truth in it. I’m average? Kareem, you never average 38. ![]() How can Shaq be a great player if he hasn’t won any rings yet? Getting beat in the first and second round. So when he’s saying something, I’m going to listen to what he’s saying before I get mad. Some of us just have presidential clearance. SO: I come from the military ranking and pecking order. ![]() How would you have felt if Bill Russell came on TV once a week and killed you? SI: But there was no show like yours when you were a player. You want to be known as great, you got to step up. So you can’t shoot 30% and then say, ‘Oh, somebody’s criticizing.’ Jordan stepped up. When Shaq don’t play well, when he doesn’t make his free throws, Shaq gets killed. I had the same amount of pressure, even more pressure. I know this for a fact because I was one of those guys. If you want to get to the next round, you got to perform. SO: Listen, I was sensitive but I tried to just shut you guys up by winning. SI: Did you consider yourself sensitive to criticism as a player? SO: I don’t know, but if it is I want to be the guy. I’m interested in a certain team in Florida. Nobody has ever called me about coaching, but I’m still looking to be an owner, somehow. It was actually very fun, but never again. I’ve coached my son in AAU, and we won a championship. I don’t think I would be able to relate to the new generation. I have an old-school mentality-Pat Riley, Phil Jackson, the great Gregg Popovich–type mentality. Shaquille O’Neal: I probably wouldn’t be able to coach. Sports Illustrated: I saw that JJ Redick interviewed for the Toronto head coaching job. Shaq says he learned a lot from former players’ criticism-that’s why he’s often critical himself. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity. O’Neal sat down with Sports Illustrated to discuss the project, along with other NBA topics. It is the fourth refurbishment O’Neal has sponsored as part of his “Comebaq Court” initiative. This week, O’Neal, in partnership with Icy Hot, opened up his fourth refurbished basketball court at Shaq’s Boys & Girls Club in Atlanta. If you can’t see that, that’s not my problem.” ![]() But a lot of times I’m saying that to help you out. It’s part of the ecosystem that we lived in. Never talk about a player bad like I don’t like him. I learned from the psychological aspect that sometimes you have to listen to what I say. “I learned a great deal from Phil Jackson. “It's not that they're sensitive,” O’Neal says. (Mitchell’s response when confronted with the critique by O’Neal in a postgame interview: “All right.”) O’Neal’s colleague Charles Barkley-no stranger to player criticism-believes some of today’s players are too sensitive. Over the years he has leveled criticism toward JaVale McGee, Dwight Howard and, more recently, Donovan Mitchell, who O’Neal, in 2021, declared doesn’t have what it takes to get to the next level. From his perch on the set of Inside the NBA, Shaquille O’Neal holds a powerful platform, one he has used to speak his mind regularly.
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