Shaquille O’Neal may seem otherworldly, like an elusive cryptid, due to his 7-foot-1 frame, but he remains a human just like any other person. That means he experiences the same emotions as anybody else. One of those is the negative reaction to criticism. That no longer is something that weighs O’Neal down, and he thanks a Robert De Niro film as the reason why.
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O’Neal entered the NBA as one of the top-rated prospects in NBA history. Fresh out of LSU ahead of the 1992-93 NBA season, the Orlando Magic viewed the big man as their franchise’s future. He was a slam-dunk first overall selection. In his rookie season, he proved that the organization’s intuition was right when he averaged 23 points and 14 rebounds, winning Rookie of the Year.
Unfortunately, Shaq didn’t experience the success he aspired to in Orlando. He led the Magic to the 1995 NBA Finals but couldn’t get over the hump as the Houston Rockets and Hakeem Olajuwon swept them. O’Neal didn’t just need a change in his on-court abilities but also his mindset.
In 1996, O’Neal watched a film titled “The Fan,” starring Robert De Niro and Wesley Snipes. The movie revolves around baseball, but had a deeper impact on O’Neal’s life. There’s one specific scene that Shaq described as the final puzzle piece in his shift in dogma.
“Robert De Niro kidnaps Wesley Snipes because he’s a famous baseball player,” O’Neal explained. “He’s like, ‘Your RBI is high, you hit home runs, you’re the best player ever, how do you do it?’ Wesley says, ‘I don’t care.’ Once I started doing that, championships [started to come], business [began to flourish].”
O’Neal was able to compartmentalize his life and distinguish the things that he did care about. “I learned how to break it down and say it’s only five things that could stress me out. I only care about my mother, kids, organization, and money,” O’Neal said.
Shaq went on to reveal only four things he cares about, having lost one on the way to making his point, but it shows how selective he is at only pouring his energy into necessary stressors. The film opened his eyes to not take on the entire world and control what really matters to him, and focus on that smaller list.
That shift came at the beginning of his tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers, and led to the Shaq we know now. O’Neal eventually led the Lakers to one of the most iconic dynasties in NBA history. The Lakers became the fifth team in league history to three-peat from 2000 to 2002. No team has achieved the feat since.
