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.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Cary Edmondson/USA TODAY Sports
Sports Illustrated: I saw that JJ Redick interviewed for the Toronto head coaching job. Anyone ever asked you to coach?
Shaquille O’Neal: I probably wouldn’t be able to coach. I have an old-school mentality—Pat Riley, Phil Jackson, the great Gregg Popovich–type mentality. I don’t think I would be able to relate to the new generation. I’ve coached my son in AAU, and we won a championship. It was actually very fun, but never again.
SI: But has anyone ever reached out?
SO: No. Nobody has ever called me about coaching, but I’m still looking to be an owner, somehow. I’m interested in a certain team in Florida.
SI: Is Heat owner Micky Arison selling?
SO: It’s not Miami.
SI: Oh, the Magic. Your first team. Of course. Are they for sale?
SO: I don’t know, but if it is I want to be the guy.
SI: Did you consider yourself sensitive to criticism as a player?
SO: Listen, I was sensitive but I tried to just shut you guys up by winning. When I speak, I speak from facts. We’re sitting there watching the game. If you want to get to the next round, you got to perform. I know this for a fact because I was one of those guys. I had the same amount of pressure, even more pressure. When Shaq don’t play well, when he doesn’t make his free throws, Shaq gets killed. Name of the game. So you can’t shoot 30% and then say, ‘Oh, somebody’s criticizing.’ [Michael] Jordan stepped up. [Larry] Bird stepped up. Magic Johnson. Isiah [Thomas]. You want to be known as great, you got to step up.
SI: But there was no show like yours when you were a player. How would you have felt if Bill Russell came on TV once a week and killed you?
SO: I come from the military ranking and pecking order. That’s Bill Russell. That man has CIA clearance. Some of us just have presidential clearance. So when he’s saying something, I’m going to listen to what he’s saying before I get mad. Kareem used to kill me all the time. But I can’t say anything. That’s Cap. That’s Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. So I sit back and read it. How can Shaq be a great player if he hasn’t won any rings yet? Getting beat in the first and second round. It bugged me. I’m average? Kareem, you never average 38. I'm averaging 38. What the hell you talking about?
But a lot of criticism has truth in it. So I was able to stop time and listen to the truth and be like, “O.K., maybe he’s right.” Now, if somebody else said that, I’d go off, try to punch him in the face. But that’s the great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I would like to think I’m top-50, top-75 player, a great big man. I would like to think I know what I’m talking about. So you want to take my advice. Cool. But if you don’t, it doesn’t matter to me.
SI: What was the most frustrated you got with Kareem?
SO: When he spoke the truth. When I was in L.A. doing big things, and he said, “Hey, Shaq’s a good guy, but maybe he needs to concentrate more on basketball than free throws.” Which is true. He says, “How can he be a great player when all they do is get swept?” I was like, “You know what? Kareem might be right.” Did you ever hear me talk bad about Kareem?
SI: No.
SO: That’s what I’m saying. Sometimes if the pecking order status relates, you just got to take it. If you’re in the military and a drill sergeant says something to a private, private can’t say nothing about it. That’s just how it is. Guess what, now I have CIA clearance. I have G-19 classification. So I get to say what I want to say.
SI: How do you explain Miami? The Heat looked awful in the regular season. Now they are one win away from the conference finals.
SO: Culture. I’m watching them play the last couple of nights. They’re really together. They have a superstar [Jimmy Butler] that doesn’t act like a superstar and shares the wealth. What they’ve done for each other. It’s like they had a meeting like, “Hey, man, I hurt my ankle. You might not get these two games. Just want y’all play hard.” Even though they lost [Wednesday] night, they’re still coming up. Jimmy’s coming, and everybody plays better at home. I like the way Duncan Robinson is playing. They’re just together. Usually the team, they got one or two guys that got to focus on, but we got to focus on Jimmy, and he’s kicking it to the others and the others are stepping up.
SI: Jimmy Butler feels like a guy you would have liked to play with.
SO: Oh, all day, every day. He would’ve made so much money off me. When they doubled me, I would’ve kicked it right to him. I would’ve kicked it right to him.
SI: You were in Miami when Erik Spoelstra was an assistant. Did you have any inkling that he would become one of the NBA’s great coaches?
SO: He’s very action-oriented. He spent a lot of time looking at film, spent a lot of time breaking down plays, making up new plays. I knew he was going to be good. I didn’t know he was going to be this good. He has done a lot, won championships, done it his way, been involved with the culture from the beginning, helped make the culture bigger than it’s down there.
SI: It’s not easy for a coach without playing experience to earn that kind of respect.
SO: It’s how you deal with the stars and how you deal with everybody else. You have to gain their respect and they have to gain your respect, and that goes hand in hand.
SI: So this is a pretty cool project of yours. You’ve been refurbishing courts in Las Vegas; Newark, N.J.; Miami; and now Atlanta. What’s special about this one?
SO: This is the largest Comebaq Court to date here at my Boys & Girls Club. We just want to give kids the opportunity to just come, play sports and stay out of trouble. So this one features a basketball court, a tennis court and a pickleball court. We have a lot of kids here at the gym, and a lot of them like to be outside. We just want to keep them active, keep their mind fresh.
