Shaquille O’Neal didn’t trust the coaches
without winning experience – NBA Update
Shaquille O’Neal is probably one of the biggest, most loved and most famous NBA super stars of all time. The powerful centre had a career in the league that spanned 19 years and came to an end this summer with the Boston Celtic.
In the said career, Shaq endured both hardships and great success, and built up a resume featuring some staggering accomplishments. A man who won the NBA world Championship on multiple occasions with multiple teams, won both regular
season and Finals MVP awards and broke all sorts of records while in the league, possesses an in depth and firsthand knowledge of the workings behind the scene.
In his long career, Shaquille played under many NBA head coaches but the always straight forward player revealed to Nola.com that he never trusted many of those coaches,
“All the coaches that I had that didn’t have the winning experience, I didn’t trust them.”
Shaq was a winner, winning mattered to him. To gain his respect, you had to prove your mettle, no matter what. Therefore it doesn’t come as a surprise that he fell in line when the legendary Phil Jackson told him to.
Jackson is only the most successful coach in the NBA, ever. He won 11 NBA World Championships before retiring at the end of last season and coached superstars such as Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman.
“When Phil Jackson came, you’re talking about resumes; whatever he says, I believe it. Because I’m watching him every summer, I’m watching this man just come off six rings. He was doing a lot of weird stuff, but I asked him did
Michael Jordan and them do this, and Mike said they did. It worked.” Shaq-fu said.
O’Neal spent the most successful part of his career playing for the Los Angeles Lakers. He won three NBA World Championships during his time there and numerous other accolades followed.
His time with the Lakers though was ripe with controversy as well. He had a public feud with teammate Kobe Bryant that went on for years. He also had trouble with the ownership of the franchise, largely because they didn’t accept
his hefty wage demands.
O’Neal though says that when all was said and done, the Lakers never went back on their word and he respected their honesty.
“Owner Jerry Buss and his group were great. They always did what they said they were going to do.”
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