From his perch on the set of Inside the NBA, Shaquille O’Neal holds a powerful platform, one he has used to speak his mind regularly. Over the years he has leveled criticism toward JaVale McGee, Dwight Howard and, more recently, Donovan Mitchell, who O’Neal, in 2021, declared doesn’t have what it takes to get to the next level. (Mitchell’s response when confronted with the critique by O’Neal in a postgame interview: “All right.”) O’Neal’s colleague Charles Barkley—no stranger to player criticism—believes some of today’s players are too sensitive. Does O’Neal agree?
“It's not that they're sensitive,” O’Neal says. “I learned a great deal from Phil Jackson. I learned from the psychological aspect that sometimes you have to listen to what I say. Never talk about a player bad like I don’t like him. Just give them advice. Now if you want my advice, cool. If you don’t, it’s fine with me. It happens. It’s part of the game. It’s part of the ecosystem that we lived in. Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] did it to me. I did it to Dwight. But a lot of times I’m saying that to help you out. If you can’t see that, that’s not my problem.”
This week, O’Neal, in partnership with Icy Hot, opened up his fourth refurbished basketball court at Shaq’s Boys & Girls Club in Atlanta. It is the fourth refurbishment O’Neal has sponsored as part of his “Comebaq Court” initiative. O’Neal sat down with Sports Illustrated to discuss the project, along with other NBA topics.
