Nowadays, Shaquille O’Neal has established himself as one of the better NBA analysts. Fans love to see Shaq’s unique takes and hilarious moments on the ‘Inside The NBA’ show each day.
While Shaq might be this lovable former player now, during his playing days, he was a nightmare for his opponents. Shaq used to dismantle opposing teams single-handedly and is regarded as one of the most dominant players to ever play in the league.
To be honest, O’Neal wasn’t the hardest of workers. Instead, he was a very gifted athlete and used his talents well for the most part of his career. If he had taken better care of his body, we might have seen him dominate the NBA for a few more years as well.
Anyway, Shaq might be a tremendous player, but he is not someone a team would like to hire as a head coach. Former Washington Wizards superstar Gilbert Arenas recently elaborated on this in an interview:
“This is not a knock against him because he was great, but he was gifted great. He was born big, athletic, and was skilled. So, the mentality of what it takes to day-in and day-out be a great player, that was Kobe’s complaint. You know, that I get here at six o’clock in the morning working on my craft and you’re just god’s gift. So will he have the brain and capacity to break down for the lames? That’s not him. And that’s where greats usually have a problem with, making it normal. That’s why Kobe was a great coach because Kobe didn’t have the 48-inch vertical and all this. He had to work on his craft, he had to understand the game, he had to understand angles. That’s why mediocre players make better coaches.”
This came in light of Shaq offering to coach the Lakers for $25 million a year after the franchise parted ways with Frank Vogel. Now, Shaq is a legendary player and has a lot of accolades under his belt. But as Arenas explained, he was a gifted athlete and didn’t have a good work ethic.
So with the Lakers already having a subpar 2021-22 NBA season, they hope to improve things in the upcoming season and hiring Shaq as head coach certainly doesn’t seem to be a clever tactic.
