Shaquille O’Neal played for six different teams during his career. From Phil Jackson’s triangle offense in the LA Lakers to Mike D’Antoni’s run-and-gun offense, he played under various challenging coaching systems. During an interview with Mexican podcaster Roberto Osuno, O’Neal reflected on the contrasting coaching approaches during his peak and injury-riddled post-prime days.
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When Shaq was younger, he was the most unstoppable offensive player, so the coaching system used to work around him. Hence, it wasn’t him, but the coaching staff that needed to make adjustments to build a team around him.
When he got older, O’Neal became slower and often missed more than half of the games during the regular season. He ended up having to learn various methods to thrive under a coaching system that was no longer working around him.
For instance, when Shaq played with a ball-dominant version of LeBron James during the 2009-10 season in the Cleveland Cavaliers, he had to remodel his game to fit alongside him.
During his last season in the NBA with the Celtics, he had to become a role player which was perhaps the biggest adjustment of his basketball career. On Roberto Mtz pod, Shaq said,
“I am the one who is helping them make changes cuz I’m the guy, never hard for me because when I come down there to people especially early in my career, they’re gonna adapt to me. Like when I got older, I had to adapt, when I played for Boston, I had to adapt. When I played with LeBron, I had to adapt to that system cuz I wasn’t the man anymore but when I got to Orlando and Miami, it’s my system.”
Then Roberto Osuna asked O’Neal if he felt any pressure while playing under different systems. O’Neal dismissed the notion and conveyed that, as long as he has the assurance of having food on his table, he doesn’t feel any pressure.
Shaq’s ideology in this case has been influenced by his stepfather Phillip A. Harrison. Once, after a poor performance against the New York Knicks, Shaq was exhausted due to the high expectations placed on him. After noticing it, his stepfather took him to a homeless tent in the early morning.
When the homeless family started coming out of the tent to search for a way to feed themselves, Harrison chided O’Neal for feeling down despite having the assurance of a meal. During his 2022 HBO documentary, SHAQ recalled his stepfather’s words.
“Pressure is when you don’t know where your next meal is coming from. I am tired of you rich, spoiled athletes not performing to your level and then say you can’t handle the pressure. You don’t know what pressure is, you still get paid after a bad game. It’s not pressure.”
One of the reasons O’Neal never felt much pressure was his rare gift as a big man. He dominated the league for more than a decade as a 7’1”, 300+ pounds athlete with terrific bounce. At the tail end of his career, he had to make certain adjustments, but it was more about his injury issues than his talent.
