Shaq grew to become so accustomed to dominating on the court docket that he felt misplaced as soon as his talents lastly began to fade.
The massive fella performed properly past his prime, and in his remaining season in 2010-11, he averaged simply 9.2 factors per sport for the Boston Celtics.
In a brand new episode of JJ Redick’s podcast, ‘The Previous Man and the Three’, O’Neal opened up concerning the hardest a part of his prime years coming to an finish.
“Not being ‘him’,” he mentioned. “‘Him’ is 28/10. F****n’ averaged 9 factors in Boston. I felt like I used to be robbing the individuals. I felt so dangerous that once they known as me again and mentioned, ‘Hey man, we owe you $1.5 [million].’ I mentioned f*****g maintain it. Preserve it. I’m not arising there to common six factors… I used to be dominant for therefore lengthy, I by no means even considered, ‘Hey sooner or later, it’s going to be gone.’
” … It first hit me once I didn’t make the All Star group. I had that like ‘oh I don’t need to play,’ however I’m like bro, I dominated the All Star sport for 12-13 years in a row. Now I don’t even get no f*****g votes. In order that half type of type of messed me up.”
Shaq added that his previous achievements have been of little consolation for him on the time, as a result of in his phrases, he was “programmed to do extra.”
On the peak of his powers, Shaq was unbelievably dominant.
In his best-ever season, he put up 29.7 factors and 13.6 rebounds per sport, profitable league MVP, Finals MVP and the championship.
It was the primary of three consecutive titles that he received alongside Kobe Bryant on the Lakers.
READ MORE: LeBron James Responds to Shaq Saying Gamers Don’t Concern Him
