“Need You to Move That Log”: Shaquille O’Neal Was Tested by Phil Jackson Before Coaching the Lakers

There have been very few people on this planet built like prime Shaquille O’Neal. But his body has had to withstand some serious wear and tear to achieve NBA greatness. He has had to use every ounce of his 350+ pounds to do some unique things, like carrying a log of wood for Phil Jackson.

With Iman Shumpert as his guest on ‘The Big Podcast’, Shaq recently delved into his first interaction with the 11-time Championship-winning head coach. It was following the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season. Lakers’ owner Jerry Buss had fired Kurt Rambis, who had taken over as interim coach. Afterwards, Jackson showed his interest in the role.

Shaq recalled, however, there was a caveat before the pioneer of the triangle offense accepted the Big Diesel as the star of his team. The Lakers center was asked to meet Jackson at his home in Montana before the latter signed as the LA side’s head coach.

“I get to Montana, he got this big, beautiful log cabin,” Shaq said. He described how Jackson had placed his championship rings directly below the sunroof. “So you can see that sh*t from the front door.”

Intimidated, the young Shaq knocked on Phil’s door. Hilariously, Jackson skipped the small talk and immediately assigned O’Neal a task fit for his stature.

“He says, ‘Hey, I need you to move that log.’ Cause he lived by a lake and there was a big log coming up on the thing…’I need you to move that log to the island over there’ and slammed the door,” the 15-time All-Star shared.

Jackson frequently put his faith in the intangibles. ‘Zen Master’, as he had come to be known, believed in building trust and respect within his team. Assigning his team’s superstar a task of manual labor was likely his way of asking O’Neal if he can get with the system.

“Boy, when I tell you, that water was colder than a motherf***er…I had to like get the log and then swim and then we push it to the other side. Took about two hours, then when I came back, he’s like ‘All right, I’m ready to coach you. I’ll see you.’ Like we didn’t even have a conversation,” Shaq revealed on his podcast.

But the Diesel understood that Jackson was testing him, adding that he might not have taken the Lakers coaching job if O’Neal had refused Jackson’s order. That log in Montana would become the first building block of an extremely successful relationship between the basketball juggernauts.

The following summer, it wasn’t logs that O’Neal was lifting but the first of his three Finals MVP trophies. Alongside Kobe Bryant, Shaq and Phil would lead the Lakers to their first and only three-peat in the early 2000s.