Shaquille O’Neal is one of the most dominant interior forces that we have ever seen. His athleticism allowed him to dominate most of the centers of his era, and for a while in his prime, he was considered the best player in the world.
Despite the fact that he was a fantastic player, Shaquille O’Neal also had his weaknesses. One of his biggest weaknesses was his free throw shooting, and teams would notoriously foul him at the end of games, hoping that he’d miss his free throws.
Recently though, it seems as though the former superstar was at the top of his game when it comes to free throws. A recent video showed him hitting three one-handed free throws in a row, then doing the silencer celebration.
It is good to see that Shaquille O’Neal is able to hit free throws these days. It is clear that he had no trouble doing that, despite the fact that he often struggled with hitting multiple free throws in a row during his time in the NBA.
Shaquille O’Neal Once Explained How His Free Throw Woes Began
Shaquille O’Neal once revealed that his free throw woes began when playing against Liberty Hill High School, noting that having to score clutch free throws in that contest was the “first time” he was “ever nervous”.
The name of the school is Liberty Hill High School. That’s their claim to fame, they beat Shaq. And Rex, believe it or not, it was the beginning of my free throw woes. So we play against this team, I’m in foul trouble. We come back, a couple seconds left, down by one, they foul me. First time I was ever nervous. No really. All the stuff that I learned it just went away, and then when you miss, and everybody is laughing at you, you get nervous again. So that was how I felt on the free throw line: okay, they’re gonna laugh at me. Just give it up.
There is no doubt that dealing with the pressure of making a needed basket at the line can be nerve-wracking for a player. It seems as though that was the case for Shaquille O’Neal in that high school game, and his free throw troubles never really went away throughout his career.
With that being said, even with this weakness, Shaquille O’Neal was still a dominant offensive player. He is generally considered a top-10 player of all time, but one can only imagine how good Shaquille O’Neal would be if he was able to make free throws at a good rate.
