Talking about some of the most dominant players in the NBA, one can never leave Los Angeles Lakers legend, Shaquille O’Neal, off the list. The big man enjoyed a prosperous spell in the league, as his career lasted for 19 seasons. Although towards the end of his career, he was a shell of himself, during his prime he was simply unstoppable.
A vital reason for his dominance goes to his huge stature. On top of being 7’1″, Shaq also weighed more than 300 pounds at one point in his career. Even imagining a player attacking the basketball with full strength must have given opposing teams nightmares.
To his credit, Shaq has a sensational resume to back up the claims of him being regarded as arguably the most dominant player of all time. He is a 4x NBA Champion, 2x Scoring Champion, 15x All-Star, 14x All-NBA, 3x Finals MVP, and 1x Regular-season MVP.
Anyway, focusing back on our topic at hand, O’Neal’s height is not normal, it is quite evident he is well above-average. So one might want to know how many times the 7-footer has received comments about his towering height. Well, in a recent podcast, O’Neal revealed the answer to the question. Moreover, he believes that we are living in a sensitive time right now.
“All the time. But you know what? I learned at an early age not to take things so seriously. I hear jokes about how’s the weather up there? I hear it all. I’m at the point in my life where I’ve actually been here a long time, nothing could really hurt my feelings. I think the times we’re living in, people are very sensitive. Yeah, I respect you. You respect me. I guarantee we have something in common. See, a lot of people these days, you think a certain way and you try to influence me to think that way. The world wasn’t built like that. Every fingerprint is different, every DNA is different, and everybody’s opinion is different. And a lot of times we react to people’s opinions without listening.”
(starts at 9:00)
Shaquille O’Neal will soon turn 50-years-old, so he has been here a long time. And at this stage, he has nothing left to prove to anyone. He has won it all and after his career ended he has multiplied his net worth many times, thanks to some smart investments.
As far as being sensitive is considered, it really depends from person to person. But due to the rise of popularity of social media platforms, hurting someone’s feelings has become easier than it was during Shaq’s time.
