A look back to the time when Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal spoke about his father, and how he talked about his game
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Shaquille O’Neal may be the funny man now. But, back in his day, he was a strapping, physical center, who was almost unequivocally, the most dominant player the NBA had ever seen. And as many may know already, that quality didn’t just apply to his game.
See, Shaq was always Shaq. That is, while he’s always had his sense of humor, back in his hay day, he was the NBA’s bully. The man would routinely call opposing players out and bully them around. Heck, he even made a grown man almost cry once, after a play on the court.
Given his personality, and of course, his career, the man was always going to have critics. And given the era he is from, of course, they were going to be a lot harsher than anything we’ve seen today.
But, many years later, when talking about the criticism today’s NBA players get, he spoke about what he had to go through. And well, why his dad’s behavior never really let it affect him.
Without further ado, let’s get right into it already.
Shaquille O’Neal claims that because of how harsh his own father was on him, other critics never really got to him
Shaq has always claimed it was his father that made him as hard-nosed as he is sometimes. No matter what came in his life, the Diesel always had the mental strength to power right through it. And well, even on this occasion, it was apparently because of his father.
Take a look at the YouTube clip below.
Now, we will say, Shaq is being a bit unfair to players today.
Back in his era, it was just reporters and analysts who were known to be just a tad bit more formal and restrained with their opinion on players, compared to now, at least.
However, in today’s world, social media and the evolution of the internet has given everybody a voice. And analysts now, much like his crew on the TNT’s ‘Inside the NBA’, are far less scared to just let loose and roast any player for as long as they like.
We definitely agree that there has been a general dive in mental toughness by people in general, as opposed to the previous generation. But, even with that in mind, Shaq’s opinion on today’s players does come off as just a bit ignorant.
But, when it comes to the lessons his father taught him, it is impossible to argue against the man they made Shaquille O’Neal. And we couldn’t be happier to have the privilege to watch him go to work, every day.
