Shaquille O’Neal was one of the best players to ever grace the basketball court during his hay day. But of course, you know that already. You’ve probably heard over, and over again about how the man used every inch of his size (pause) to back up and bang on his opponents (again, pause), in order to dominate them every night (say it with me now…).
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However, allow us to tell you something that you also probably know already. The man was an atrocious three-point shooter. Scratch that, he was an atrocious shooter outside of maybe even 6 feet from the hoop. So, when the man proclaims he is now like Stephen Curry. You’ve got to scoff a little bit.
As it turns out though, the man may not have been lying completely. You see, to stay fit, O’Neal has continued to play basketball to stay fit. And so of course, with time, he grew curious about the outside shot, something that has apparently started to pay dividends.
Shaquille O’Neal is now a 7’1” Stephen Curry
Now, you might think we’re exaggerating a bit on this one. But, that’s the thing. You forget that Shaquille O’Neal is no Ben Simmons. The man actually worked on his game, and now it has started to show. If you don’t believe that, just take a look below at the Instagram post, and the man sharing it, below.
View this post on Instagram
No explanation needed here, eh @SHAQ? 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/wiHpkND8XV
— Tonoy Sengupta (@TonoySengupta) April 8, 2023
“Steph Curry”
Granted, these shots could just be one attempt of 5 billion or so. But hey, the man made it fair and square. And he made it look a bit too easy while doing it. So, we’re going to take a business decision here, and believe this man.
That said though, let’s get some numbers into the mix here. Just how much has the man improved here? Or rather, more specifically, just how bad was his shooting ability from beyond the arc during his career?
How many threes did Shaquille O’Neal take and make over the course of his career?
Over the course of his 19-year career, Shaquille O’Neal took a grand total of 22 threes. Out of these, the big man made a single one. And boy was it a good one.
This gives him a shooting percentage of 4.5% from beyond the arc. It doesn’t get much worse than that. But then again, to be fair, he could have made 0 three-pointers too, much like Ben Simmons. So, perhaps the man deserves some flowers here.