You can always count on Dwyane Wade’s podcast The Why to bring something interesting and unique to the table when it comes to discussing basketball. Yesterday’s episode, which featured guest Rajon Rondo, was no exception, as the crew made an interesting point about how point guards are better equipped to become head coaches than big men.
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The discussion began with Doc Rivers, who won a championship with Rondo in Boston but is often criticized for things like his record in Game 7s or the way he was never able to get the Clippers over the hump.Wade made sure to give Doc, a fellow Marquette alum, his flowers, which brought about the realization that point guards make good coaches.
It makes sense. Just as catchers make good baseball managers, point guards have to see the entire playing field and approach the game in a cerebral way. This understanding led to Wade and friends imagining what it was like when Patrick Ewing coached at Georgetown, then even more hilariously, picturing what Shaquille O’Neal would be like as a coach.
Rondo mentioned that he played with Shaq but was quickly corrected by Wade. “You didn’t play with Shaq; you played with Shaquille. I played with Shaq.”
Wade is referring to how Shaq was still close to his prime when he played in Miami, and he helped Wade deliver the Heat their first championship after he had already won three with the Lakers.
By the time Rondo got to play with Shaq, ahem, Shaquille, in Boston, the big man was in the final year of his career and was no longer the dominant force he once was.
Shaq’s time in Boston is a career footnote that is best forgotten
Wade may have been right when he told Rondo that Shaq “was just there getting the rest of his money.”
Rondo seemed to agree, saying, “Shaq didn’t wanna care about nothin’, he’d be like, ‘Do, what’s the play?’ I’m like, ‘Shaq, alright I got you big fella.'”
Shaq was 38 by this point with a ton of miles on him. He played in only 37 games that year, the fewest of his career, and also averaged career lows with 20.3 minutes, 9.2 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.1 blocks.
Compared to the more than $280 million he made in the rest of his career, Shaq’s $1.3 million salary in that final year was just a drop in the bucket, but as we’ve seen in his post-playing days, the Big Diesel has trouble saying “no” to a check.
When reminiscing about Shaq’s career, it’s best to remember his physically overwhelming early years in Orlando, his dominant run with Kobe in L.A., and his Batman and Robin run with Wade in Miami. As for his last few years in Cleveland, Phoenix, and Boston, that wasn’t Shaq; that was Shaquille.
