Shaquille O’Neal had quite a lot to say about the legendary Miami Heat coach, Pat Riley in his book 2011 Shaq Uncut. He had called out Riley for promising to retire his Heat jersey if he played for the organization. Well, that eventually did happen in 2016. In another instance of the book, Shaq talked about how he suspected Pat Riley had spies working for him in South Beach.
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Shaquille O’Neal was offered MJ’s number 23, which had been previously retired by the Heat, when he first considered a move to Miami. When Shaq refused and opted for 32 instead, Riley promised him that his jersey would be the first to be retired by the organization. Even though O’Neal’s jersey was not the first to be retired, the Heat did eventually retire #32 in 2016.
Once Shaq signed with the Heat, he was aware of what he was getting into. He always mentioned the strictness of Riley in comparison to all the other coaches he had worked with. Even after winning the championship, Riley would make sure that Shaq was in top shape during the summer. This proved to be bothersome for Shaq who of course wanted to have some fun.
Shaquille O’Neal suspected Pat Riley to have spies
NBA fans are well aware of the popular Heat culture that tends to drain a player to get the best out of them. Riley ran a tight ship when Shaq was at Miami. This posed a lot of problems for the big fella. In his book, Shaq went on to describe the veteran coach as all-knowing. This was before social media had even been invented. Shaq could only deduce that Pat had spies all over South Beach.
He provided instances when he would go out and have some fun at night to relieve some stress. Shaq thought that he would get away with it without Riley knowing. However, to his surprise, Pat always caught him, and could even quote the exact time he had snuck into the club. Shaq wrote in Shaq Uncut:
“I always suspected that Pat must have had some spies down on South Beach watching us. He always seemed to know what we were doing. I’d be out having fun, and the next day I’d show up for practice and he’d say, ‘Shaq, why were you at this club at two a.m.?'”
Shaq reminisced Pat Riley’s brutal Body Fat Percentage program
Shaquille O’Neal had endured a lot during his time with the Heat. He provided the instance of Pat Riley’s intensive body fat program where players had to maintain a certain amount of body fat percentage to be in game shape. This was brutal for Shaq as the program forced him to be in the gym all day.
Everything was looking great, except one thing: I didn’t have time to do anything but work out all day long because Pat was all hung up on this body fat program. He was very serious about it. He expected all the guards to have 6 percent body fat, the forwards to have 7 to 8 percent body fat, and the centers to have 10 percent body fat.
Despite all that, Shaq still managed to help the Miami Heat win a championship. He may not have liked Pat’s way of doing things to the extremes but those techniques ultimately paid off.
