It’s hard to truly comprehend the kind of dominance Shaquille O’Neal brought to the NBA. At 7ft 1″, he was taller than most players and had unparalleled strength. Coupled with his athleticism, he was a lethal weapon. A weapon that quite literally destroyed his defenders. Toyed with them like they were powerless mannequins.
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A paint god, O’Neal’s main game involved crowding the restricted zone and hammering down a dunk. He did have a few more moves where he used the board but Shaq’s skill lay in rushing toward the ring and overwhelming any defender.
But, in his book Shaq Uncut, Diesel revealed that he had another weapon, something he only used 22 times in his entire career.
Shaquille O’Neal boasted of having a killer three-pointer
In his entire NBA career, Shaq attempted just 22 three-pointers in his entire career and made just one. Safe to conclude, no one acknowledged him as a ranged shooter. But Shaquille O’Neal disagreed with this conclusion.
In his book, he claimed he regularly hit them in practice. In fact, his high school coach gave him the position of a pinch three-point shooter. This, if true, effectively highlights Shaq’s precision from beyond the arc.
In his book, Shaq wrote of the matter: “The truth was I took jumpers in practice all the time. I had three-point range. Ask my teammates. I drained them all the time. Coach Madura told me once if we ever needed a three-pointer at the end of the game he’d consider letting me take it because I could hit it and he knew no one would ever be able to block it. It just didn’t make sense in games to take those kind of shots when I could just as easily slam the ball through. It was all about high percentage shots. My field goal percentage in my senior year of high school was 71 percent.”
Diesel did not need three-point shooting
It is unlikely that Shaq could have shot how he claims in the NBA at least. His record obviously proves otherwise. A 0% shooting rate from the three-point range is obviously not a mark of a sharpshooter. Though, in his nostalgic monologue, Shaq does point out something important.
He never needed the three-pointer. Shaquille O’Neal was a monster without it. At the peak of his career, he made more than 57% of his field goals. That’s unbelievably efficient considering Shaq attempted more than 19 field goals per game over 7 seasons and managed more than 57% from the field. Definitely had no need for a ranged jump shot.
