Shaquille O’Neal had some varied experiences during his time at Miami, especially playing under the tutelage of the great coach Pat Riley. Additionally, in his 2012 autobiography Shaq Uncut, O’Neal blamed Riley for aggravating his injury problems at the Heat. Much of this was perpetrated by Riley’s body fat regime, which demanded the Big Fella to reduce himself to a lean body figure.
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Shaq noticed that he was getting hurt with this lean body figure, which could not take the abuse from his opponents’ physicality. O’Neal blamed Pat Riley for the same, stating that he never had such injury problems during his time with the Orlando Magic and the Los Angeles Lakers.
Shaq’s long-time massage therapist, Danny Garcia, also agreed with Shaq on this matter. Garcia assessed that a lean figure meant Shaq’s body could not absorb the hits from his opponents. Furthermore, being a power player, Shaq’s body started enduring more injuries than ever in his career during his time at Miami. Mentioning all of these in his autobiography, Shaq wrote,
“Pat forgot to take into account the pounding my body took, day in and day out, going for those rebounds he wanted me to get. I was too much of a power player to take that kind of abuse on that lean of a body. I had more injuries in my time with Miami than anywhere else in my career.”
Later, after Miami, Shaq’s career was further derailed due to his severe injury issues. Though Shaq tried his luck at the Phoenix Suns and with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers for another championship campaign, plaguing injuries made it impossible for the Big Aristotle to repeat the feats that he achieved with the Lakers and the Heat. With injuries constantly diminishing his playing time on the floor, Shaq announced his retirement from the Celtics in 2011.
Shaquille O’Neal had several other complaints against Pat Riley
Pat Riley was a disciplinarian of the highest order as a coach. His orders often struck fear among the Heat players, including Udonis Haslem. However, Shaquille O’Neal stood as a rebel and often resisted Riley during his time at Miami. One of his biggest allegations against Riley was surveilling Dwyane Wade during practice, which had turned the young star uptight on and off the court. In the book, O’Neal stated,
“Even when Pat wasn’t coaching, it was definitely his team. He was there, all the time, probably drawing up plays in his office. He had cameras everywhere. Cameras on the practice court, cameras in the locker room, probably even cameras in the bathroom. He wanted to know everything.”
