Shaquille O’Neal has throughout his playing career and been one of the most entertaining personalities in the NBA. The big man is known as someone that loves a bit of fun and lives life to the fullest.
While he embraces that image and has no issues entertaining people, at times it has been used as a critique to put him down. This was especially true during his younger days with the Orlando Magic until Shaquille O’Neal shut everyone up brilliantly.
“I don’t believe in that stuff about how youth can’t win NBA championships,” said Shaquille O’Neal when he was 24 years old, as reported by Sports Illustrated in 1996. “If you got game, you got game. That’s why Tiger Woods is out there playing golf with Greg Norman. Once and for all, I am mature enough.”
Shaquille O’Neal had helped take the Orlando Magic to the 1995 NBA Finals, where they got swept by the Houston Rockets. However, doing that as a 23-year-old didn’t quite help Shaq’s image as much as it became something to question his greatness and his desire to win.
Shaquille O’Neal would go on to win four NBA championships, and he got three of those before he turned 30 years old. That does go to show that his point was valid. He didn’t when he was very young, only a few players have, but he won it young enough to show that he could get serious when it became necessary.
Shaquille O’Neal Couldn’t Have Accomplished Everything He Has Without Being Mature
Shaquille O’Neal may act immature at times, and he still does it when trying to prank his crewmates on Inside The NBA. Some of the pranks he pulled in his playing days are the definition of immature too, so the label isn’t out of nowhere. But that is only by choice, O’Neal has always been a very shrewd operator.
When he realized that he could win bigger and get richer in a major market, Shaquille O’Neal left Orlando to join the Los Angeles Lakers. Once he got there, he established his authority during their first three-peat and won three consecutive Finals MVPs.
After earning over $290 million in salary and retiring from the NBA, Big Diesel has grown his net worth to over $400 million using astute business acumen. A lot of it was set up when he was younger and looking to make good investments and get the right endorsements. Anyone calling O’Neal immature at any point was never really looking beyond the surface.
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