Shaquille O’Neal can be a bit of a bully anytime the moment calls for it. In fact, it is a tad bit scary how quickly he can make that switch. Fortunately for audiences today, it is very rare to see the man’s more serious side. However, during his term in the NBA, even when he was joking, his statement entailed roasting someone pitted against him.
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Now, most don’t think much of this. They’ve just believed he’s always been this way. That he is strong enough to get his way, and if he doesn’t, he will find a way to have it break his way, anyway.
But, the thing is, as O’Neal once explained, it wasn’t always like this. No, it was Celtics legend Bill Russell who made things change for the better.
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Shaquille O’Neal credited Bill Russell for not letting him be a ‘spoiled’ brat
Shaq may have been a Lakers legend. However, that didn’t stop the man from taking key advice from legends of enemy franchises. And as he revealed on one occasion, he chose one of the greatest Celtics legends of all time, Bill Russell.
Here is what he said on the matter, in an interview on the Rich Eisen Show.
“(Bill Russell is a) Top two greatest big men ever. One of the nicest gentlemen ever. I learned from him. He made me realize I was a spoiled brat, that I was complaining… What I mean by that [is] when I first met Bill Russell, high, jovial, giggly, and he started telling me stories. Stories I had no idea [about] like couldn’t stay in the same hotel with your teammates and people throwing things at you and death threats and this and that. I was like, ‘You know what? I’mma stop complaining.’
“Because it was for guys like him and Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem, they paved the way for me. Barkley, those guys, Magic, they paved the way for me to make a lot of money. So, by listening to all the stories that Mr. Bill Russell told me, I just said, ‘Stop complaining. Stop complaining about anything. Don’t say nothing. You make a good living because of what all these people had to go through.’”
Later on in the interview, the man further dropped a golden story about him and Russell having a conversation together.
“I just realized it… A lot of times, you can see the title of a book. ‘Oh, he’s a great player. Best player ever.’ But then when you open the book, you’re like, ‘Oh my god, he had to go through all of this.’ So, this was like the first time I met him, he was sitting down, I think he’s at the Four Seasons, he was just drinking water, and he was just telling me stories. I didn’t get to get a word out, he was just … and he’s happily telling me these stories. But I’m like, ‘Damn, y’all didn’t travel private? You didn’t get to stay in the hotel?’ Every hotel I went to, I had to have the biggest suite, Rich. It’s just how I was. And he was like, ‘Man, we had to stay in other hotels, we couldn’t drink water out the water fountain.’ And I actually felt bad.
“And these guys were the greatest players ever, and they didn’t even make one-fourth of the money that we made. So, I decided to myself, ‘OK, I’mma stop complaining.’ And I’m gonna play hard for these guys. I’mma let them know, ‘Thank you, I appreciate you, and, you know, whatever you need.’ Nobody had to tell me. I was smart enough and conscious enough to that, ‘Hey, you’re a spoiled brat. You’re not even that good yet. You get swept every year in the playoffs. Shut your face up, pick your game up, and start winning championships.’”
The late great Bill Russell truly was a man almost unfazed by the greatness of his career.
Instead of being caught up in his own brilliance, the man wanted to do nothing more than just sit down and have a nice conversation.
There have never been many quite like the Celtics legend. And we doubt that there really ever will be.
