Shaquille O’Neal is one of the celebrities who is very active on social media and uses the platform to express his thoughts. Instagram is one of the more popular choices for Shaq to dish out his unconventional opinions. Known for posting hypothetical matchups and other random facts on his Instagram, the TNT analyst shared yet another graphic. Blaming his awful free throw, Shaq believes he would’ve surpassed LeBron James and Oscar Schmidt as the all-time leading scorer in the world.
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Shaquille O’Neal was one of the most dominant players in basketball history. Standing at 7ft 1” and weighing more than 330 lbs for the majority of his career, Shaq earned his bread and butter by asserting command over the paint. While he was one of the most talented centers ever, his awful free-throw shooting was a major obstacle that he was unable to tackle. Shooting at an abysmal 52.7% from the charity stripe, the Big Aristotle has quite often criticized his own free throw shooting.
Shaquille O’Neal criticizes free throw for not being closer to LeBron James and Oscar Schmidt in a prestigious list
Shaquille O’Neal recently took to his Instagram, sharing a list of the highest all-time scorers in the world. Oscar Schmidt – a Brazilian legend – was at the top-most spot with 49,737 points. LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, and Kobe Bryant followed Schmidt as the next four in the top five. With 34,266 points, Shaq was #10 on the list.
O’Neal believed that if he had a better performance from the charity stripe, he would’ve been among the likes of Schmidt. However, that may not entirely be true. Even if O’Neal scored all of the 13,569 free throws that he attempted in his career, he would still only have an additional 6,466 points added to his total. With 40,732 points, Shaq would be good enough for the 5th position on this list, tailing Schmidt by more than 9,000 points.
“dam if i was a good at free throws i would be oscar schmidt. dam i’m terrible whyyyyyyyyyyyyy”
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Oscar Schmidt is regarded as one of the best players in world basketball. Having played for almost three decades, Schmidt accumulated a grand total of 49,737 points. A five-time Olympian, the 6ft 9″ forward averaged a staggering 42.3 points per game during the 1988 Olympic Games.
Not only is Schmidt inducted into the FIBA Hall-Of-Fame, but is also a member of the Naismith Memorial Hall-Of-Fame and the Italian Basketball Hall-Of-Fame.
Despite horrific shooting, Shaq calls himself “Black Stephen Curry”
Shaquille O’Neal was a 52.7% shooter from the free-throw line. But his performance from the three-point line was even worse. Having knocked down merely one three-pointer, O’Neal went 4.5% from 3FG. Despite being a pretty atrocious long-range shooter, the Big Aristotle has the audacity to call himself the “Black Steph Curry.”
Since his retirement, Shaq has often shown off his incredible shooting from the three-point arc. If only Shaq had developed a solid jumper during his playing day, he would’ve certainly been closer to Schmidt on the prestigious list.
