The new Shaq documentary has definitely glorified Shaquille O’Neal and his adventures. However, it definitely missed an important aspect of O’Neal’s career. A young 7ft 1″ Shaq, after all, was a straight-up menace. He was crude, cruel, and too big to be stopped. Not the best combination.
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After all, even if someone was hurt or felt terrible about Shaq’s jibes. there was nothing they could do. O’Neal was the kind of man who could slap a 7ft 2″ center in front of teammates and not receive any backlash. Who would want to fight someone who was closer to a steam engine than a man? Definitely not Greg Ostertag’s teammates.
But, players weren’t the only ones facing the end of O’Neal’s rage. Sometimes, he would direct the ‘mean energy’ at coaches too.
Also read: ‘Notorious’ Shaquille O’Neal once poured buckets of poop and urine on rookies, as per HOF teammate
Shaquille O’Neal lashed out at Sonics’ head coach
Back in 1998, the Lakers progressed to the Western Conference semi-finals after defeating Portland. Shaq, having been rebuked for visiting a strip club in Seattle, was pretty frustrated. To add insult to injury, the Sonics won the first game of the series.
Shaquille O’Neal, during the semis, got especially agitated by Seattle’s head coach George Karl’s antics. Diesel saw Karl’s complaining as an invitation for attack and attack he did.
He called Karl a crybaby and compared him to a woman coach, which in itself was quite problematic. The climate was quite different back in the day and Shaq did not draw as much flak as he should have.
In his book Three-Ring Circus, Jeff Pearlman detailed the incident. He wrote:
“Meanwhile, the Sonics took Game 1 with a 106–92 triumph, made worse by Bryant coming down with a serious case of the flu that would limit his availability and O’Neal engaging in a silly war of words with Seattle coach George Karl, who whined to the officials one too many times. “He looks like a woman coach sometimes. I guess he’s just trying to get into certain people’s heads, but it won’t work with me,” O’Neal said. “Like a woman who coaches and cries all the time. He can’t get in my head. He’s a crybaby.”
The Sonics lost the series 4-1 to the Lakers
The Shaq and Kobe Bryant duo was just becoming lethal back in 1998. And Sonics, fortunately, did not have to face the lethal duo. Bryant, who was down with flue, missed two games in the series and averaged only 10 minutes.
But Shaq was on a roll and turned into a demon. Diesel averaged 30.6 points and 9.6 rebounds per game. He quite literally won the entire series on his own.
