In Golden State, Draymond Green’s hit on Jordan Poole has become a national media sensation. In the aftermath of the reported incident, with a video to follow, fans and reporters from all across the globe chimed in to offer their thoughts and analysis on the ordeal.
As for the team, they are doing their best to mitigate the damage, but it seems that things may never be the same for that locker room again.
All around, it’s a tragic and unfortunate situation for the Warriors and one that typically doesn’t happen too often. For NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal however, a punch in the face wasn’t too unheard of for his career.
Shaquille O’Neal Reveals How Many People He Has Punched Over His NBA Tenure
On an episode of his podcast, O’Neal spoke about the Warriors crisis and admitted to the number of faces he has hit. Admittedly, it puts Draymond’s numbers to shame.
“Guess what? In order to win a championship, you gotta fight everything anyway,” said Shaq. “I never had no easy practice. Do you know how many times I told people, ‘foul me again, I’ll punch you in the face,’ and they foul me and I punch them in the face? I played on seven teams, I’ve had to touch up five players in fights.”
So it seems that fists get thrown more often than we think in NBA practices. Still, Shaq is hardly a person to follow when it comes to the proper treatment of teammates.
One of the things Shaq was notorious for during his career was making life a living hell for his guys, like the poor rookies who got their heads doused with a bucket of his own urine.
A recent story told by Gary Payton (who was teammates with Shaq in L.A. and Miami) has some people questioning if Shaq may have taken things too far.
According to Payton, the star big man used to prank rookies by dousing them in a bucket of his own urine while they were in a stall.
“Shaq is a jokester, so if one of the rookies was in a stall, he would take a bucket and use the bathroom in it for about a week, then all of a sudden he’d pour it on them,” Payton said.
Hardly anyone is surprised by Shaq’s big reveal. During his career, he was never one who shied away from getting physical.
And while Draymond will move past this scandal eventually, the fact that his hit was recorded makes things so much worse — so it’s a good thing that Shaq played before smartphones became the meta.
