Throughout Shaquille O’Neal’s playing career, Big Diesel had an abysmal 52.7% free throw percentage. This poor statistic continued to haunt Shaq even after his retirement. But the Big Man has decided to embrace this aspect of his playing career and correlate himself to the current arguably greatest shooter, Stephen Curry. Oftentimes, Shaq has called himself the ‘Black Steph Curry,’ which he did once again in a recent episode of The Big Podcast.
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While touring as DJ Diesel earlier this year, Shaquille O’Neal reiterated his outlandish claim as the ‘Black Steph Curry,’ which garnered varied reactions from many, including Curry’s mother, Sonya Curry. When co-host Adam Lefkoe asked Shaq what Steph might think of this self-attributed nickname, the Big Diesel promptly replied, “His mom said Steph’s black too. I was like,’ You’re right, Mom.'”
Shaquille O’Neal also discussed his free throws, claiming he would shoot 80% in his home gym. Adding to this claim, Shaq further described his form as very much like Curry, which was far from the truth. In contrast to Shaq naming himself the Black Steph Curry, Shaq’s career will always be denoted by how FTs and distant shooting were like an Achilles heel for the big man.
Shaquille O’Neal once lost an FT contest against a 10-year-old
It’s almost impossible to believe that a 10-year-old could defeat an All-Time NBA legend in a free-throw contest. Shaq might have been one of the worst FT takers in the league’s history. However, being a professional NBA player for almost 19 seasons, it should have been possibly easy for the 4x champion to win against a kid.
During an FT contest against kids in a segment of Inside the NBA, Shaquille O’Neal’s abysmal free throw form never seemed to change. In fact, Shaq’s method was pathetic enough, prompting Kenny Smith to say, “You’re killing me!” to the Big Man.
In another attempt to shoot FTs, Shaq was challenged by WNBA star Candace Parker in the Inside The NBA show. Interestingly, the Big Aristotle seemed to have improved, given he had a rather impressive 1-8 record for himself during this attempt.
Completing this challenge successfully, Shaq exclaimed, “I was just messing with y’all. I was just playing with y’all. I set y’all up”. Even though Shaq has not been known for his free throws, there is no doubt about his legendary status as an NBA athlete.
