On his ‘The Big Podcast with Shaq‘, Shaquille O’Neal revealed that once he threw his 1996 Olympic Gold Medal out of his car window. The sensational big man resented the lack of playing time. He was upset that USA’s head coach Lenny Wilkens didn’t give him double-digit minutes. The big fella was upset because he was overlooked despite helping the team numerous times. His comments came in when guest Kirk Cousins asked him if he enjoyed the 1996 Olympics experience in Atlanta.
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“The Olympic games 96, I played throughout, help him come back win games. In the gold medal game, Lenny Wilkens says, ‘Hey, this is probably David Robinson’s last game so he is probably gonna get more minutes’,” Shaq told Cousins and co-host Adam Lefkoe.
While accepting that D-Rob should get his minutes, O’Neal thought he still deserved more playing time. He was so disappointed that, on his way home, he felt disgusted with his gold medal and decided to get rid of it. This enraged action left both Cousins and Lefkoe stunned.
“He didn’t play me at all till like the last two minutes. I was so pi**ed off after the ceremony, I drove home in my uniform and I threw the goodman medal out of the window,” the Magic legend added.
Then Shaquille O’Neal disclosed that he never recovered the medal after he hurled it on a highway. He also expressed that he doesn’t “regret” losing his 1996 Olympic gold medal. His gripe is understandable. In the 1996 Olympics Men’s Basketball Final, the USA defeated Yugoslavia 95-69. In that game, David Robinson played 26 minutes and hoarded 28 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 steals.
Meanwhile, Hakeem Olajuwon played just 13 minutes. However, Shaq, who was a rising star of the league, just landed 5 minutes. While he doesn’t have fond memories of the 1996 Olympics, Diesel did enjoy his time with Team USA during the 1994 World Championship.
Shaquille O’Neal came up with a huge claim
During the 1994 Basketball World Championship, the USA assembled a squad that didn’t have any members of the 1992 Olympics Dream Team. However, the squad still had a lot of rising stars. It was loaded with frontline aces Shaquille O’Neal, Alonzo Mourning, Shawn Kemp, Larry Johnson, and Derrick Coleman. At wing, they had Dominique Wilkins and the guard position was stacked with talents like Mark Price, Steven Smith, and Dan Majerlie.
During an episode of his podcast, O’Neal claimed that “Dream Team II” could have beaten Jordan, Johnson, and Bird’s trio. A clip by the Insta account ‘Playmaker Hoops‘ covers his bold claim.
Kirk Cousins rightfully pointed out that it is a “hot take”. The 1994 squad was certainly more athletic and had a lot of versatile talent. However, the Dream Team was full of players with championships and MVPs between them. Contrarily, there is no way that O’Neal wouldn’t back a team with his talents. He was one of the most intimidating players of all time after all and dominated many legendary Centers.
