Shaquille O’Neal has never been one to hold his tongue, and his latest story about Pat Riley is pure vintage Shaq. Appearing on the Straight Game Podcast, the Hall of Famer opened up about his time in Miami and one particular moment when Riley tried to get under his skin by comparing him to Alonzo Mourning.
“Pat was more ‘do this, do that.’ Like when I first got there, he was like, ‘Oh, your body fat needs to be 11.’ I was like, I don’t do that s**t. We all know Pat is a stat guy. So one day he brought Alonzo Mourning and me into the office.”
“He said, ‘Alonzo, take your shirt off.’ And Alonzo was built like a He-Man doll, right? He’s like, ‘I need you to look like this.’ And I was like, oh, motherf***er look good. But then I pulled out my piece of paper on his a**.”
“I said, ‘But let me tell you something. This is how much I average on. 39, 17, and 4. I said he got the six-pack and all that. I like to eat burgers. But this is what I average on him. I’m not doing that.’ So he didn’t like the fact that I would stand up to him.”
It was the perfect Shaq response: self-aware, humorous, but backed with undeniable facts. And he wasn’t lying. Against Mourning, one of the most respected defenders of the era, Shaq flat-out dominated.
O’Neal owned a 13–3 career record against Mourning, and the stats paint the picture. He averaged 30.4 points, 12.4 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 3.0 blocks per game in those matchups.
Mourning, a two-time Defensive Player of the Year, put up solid numbers himself, 21.1 points, 9.2 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 2.0 blocks but when it came to head-to-head battles, Shaq was simply on another level.
There were nights when Shaq seemed unstoppable. He once dropped 46 points and 20 rebounds on Mourning. Another time, he hung 40 points on him. Across their careers, Shaq posted seven games of 30-plus points when lined up against his fellow Hall of Famer.
So when Riley pointed at Mourning’s chiseled frame as the standard, Shaq already had the trump card. He didn’t need the bodybuilder look to impose his will. He had the numbers, the rings, and the dominance to prove it.
Shaq’s Miami tenure will always be remembered for bringing the franchise its first championship in 2006 alongside Dwyane Wade, but it wasn’t without turbulence. His strong-willed personality often clashed with Riley’s iron-fist style. On the same podcast, O’Neal recalled how things boiled over before his 2008 trade to Phoenix.
“I told him, ‘Motherf****r, put me out,’” Shaq said of his heated scuffle with Riley.
Not long after, the Heat shipped him to the Suns, ending an era that had already produced a title but couldn’t sustain harmony.
For fans, the story is classic Shaq, a reminder that while Mourning was sculpted like a god, O’Neal was the immovable force who bent the game to his will. His comeback to Riley captures what made him special: he wasn’t interested in fitting someone else’s mold. He was interested in results.
And the results? Five Finals appearances, four championships, and a career built on proving that the big man who ate burgers could still dominate anyone in his path, even Alonzo Mourning.
