“LeBron James Is Choppy; Shaquille O’Neal Had Fine Motor Skills”: Kenny ‘The Jet’ Smith Remains Baffled By the 51 Y/o’s Athleticism

Shaquille O’Neal is often regarded as the most dominant player in the history of the league. Standing at 7-feet-1 and weighing between 325-400 pounds, the Los Angeles Lakers legend dominated the paint over a decade in the NBA. Despite being overweight for the majority of his career, Shaq was one of the most agile big men in his era. Therefore, Kenny Smith recently compared him to another physical anomaly in the NBA and one of the greatest athletes in Sports history, LeBron James. Complimenting the Diesel’s dexterity, “The Jet” revealed that he believes Shaq could still play 5-10 minutes in the NBA.

Even though Shaquille O’Neal was extremely bulky, he was very light on his feet. This allowed the four-time NBA champion to run coast-to-coast and be an asset on both sides of the floor. This attribute of the Big Aristotle’s game was one of the main reasons behind his successful career.

Even in the later stages of his career, the Diesel was pretty effective on the court. Playing 25+ minutes per game, the big man could lodge a solid 15-point, 8-rebound performance on any given night. Unfortunately, O’Neal was forced to retire due to the unbearable pain he suffered because of an Achilles injury.

Kenny Smith thinks Shaquille O’Neal could still play in the NBA

The Houston Rockets legend recently made an appearance on the Big Boy TV podcast. At one point in the hour-long episode, Smith told the hosts of the show that, he believes before his hip surgery Shaq could still play for about 5-10 minutes per night in the NBA, “Before the hip surgery, he could give you 5-10 minutes.”

In addition, the 58-year-old spoke about the Hall-Of-Famer’s incredible athleticism. Smith revealed that players usually have either “fine motor skills” or “big motor skills”. Before calling LeBron James “choppy” and putting him on the “big motor skills” list, the two-time NBA champion lauded Shaq for being the only Big with both skills. Calling the “Superman” a freak of nature, the two-time NBA champ said:

“Shaq is a freak of nature, man, he really is. He’s still like breakdancing, doing flips, and jumping into Christmas trees. He’s such an athlete. God blessed him with a 7-foot-2 body, with a 5’2 dexterity… Shaq’s the only big guy who had fine motor skills and big motor skills. LeBron James is choppy, so it’s not fine motor skill like Kyrie Irving is fine motor. Shaq had both, which is incredible.”  

Kenny isn’t wrong here. Even at age 38, Shaq was a difficult assignment for any defender to guard. Despite playing with several injuries, the two-time scoring champ would go on to average just under 10 points per game for the Boston Celtics. Had he been healthy, we could’ve possibly seen the Lakers legend play beyond his 40s.

Shaq got hip surgery in the middle of the FTX fiasco

Cryptocurrency trading company FTX announced bankruptcy in late 2022. With the company being accused of fraud and misusing customers’ funds, investors would go on to sue the company, as well as its celebrity endorsers. Unfortunately, Shaq was one of the several celebrity endorsers named in the class action lawsuit filed by the investors.

While the plaintiffs’ attorneys accused Shaq of hiding in his house to avoid getting served, reports suggested that the NBA legend was actually undergoing hip replacement surgery. Incidentally, the proceedings of a lawsuit can’t begin in court unless the defendants have been served the papers of the suit in person.

After a successful surgery, we soon saw the big man make his return to the TNT studio. As it turns out, after a long delay, Shaq has been finally served the papers of the lawsuit as well.