{"id":935201,"date":"2026-10-20T17:54:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T17:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/935201\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T17:54:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T17:54:18","slug":"shaquille-oneals-advice-for-nba-phenom-victor-wembanyama-be-meaner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/935201\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaquille O’Neal’s Advice for NBA Phenom Victor Wembanyama: ‘Be Meaner’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tShaquille O\u2019Neal<\/a>\u2019s second act has been full of surprises.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe NBA<\/a> legend and cultural icon has served as a sheriff\u2019s deputy, reserve officer and honorary U.S. Marshal, at one point helping the Justice Department track down internet predators online; earned two master\u2019s degrees and a doctorate; accumulated (and sold) 155 fast food franchises and 40 gyms; briefly co-owned the Sacramento Kings; runs the popular Dunkman slam-dunk league<\/a>; tours the country as a DJ; and recently popped up in the new \u201cScary Movie.\u201d<\/a> Shaq\u2019s also in his 15th season as one of the hosts of \u201cInside the NBA,\u201d<\/a> the \u201cgreatest sports studio show in the history of television,\u201d according to The New York Times.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd yet, despite his considerable on-court accomplishments \u2014 four NBA championships, three NBA Finals MVPs, 15 All-Star selections and status as the most dominant big man of the modern era \u2014 Shaq rarely finds himself in the GOAT conversation, which typically pits Michael Jordan against LeBron James<\/a>. When asked if this bothers him at all, Shaq launches into a story about his youth.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe answer is yes and no,\u201d he tells Variety. \u201cI could remember crying to my mom one day about being the best athlete in my high school, but I didn\u2019t win Athlete of the Year. My mom grabbed me and said, \u2018Baby, nobody roots for Goliath.\u2019 And I said, \u2018What does that mean?\u2019 And she said, \u2018When you\u2019re big, they expect you to do certain things, but the little guy will always get the praise.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe continues: \u201cAnd I\u2019m seeing it now because when you\u2019re talking about the GOATs, it doesn\u2019t matter who you pick, but please mention Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Yet they always go for the little guy \u2014 \u2018Ooh Mike,\u2019 \u2018Ooh Kobe,\u2019 \u2018Ooh LeBron.\u2019 So, do I feel underappreciated? Yes. But nobody roots for Goliath. And I\u2019m flattered when a lot of people talk about their best big men and my name is mentioned, and when it comes to the most dominant ever then my name is one of two.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThrough his production company Jersey Legends, Shaq has spearheaded a number of TV projects, from the aforementioned Dunkman league<\/a> to the acclaimed \u201cAllen Iv3rson\u201d docuseries<\/a> for Prime, the Netflix reality show \u201cPower Moves With Shaquille O\u2019Neal\u201d and a number of other scripted projects in development.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne thing you won\u2019t see Shaq touch, however, is a documentary on his former Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI wouldn\u2019t want to do one because that enigmatic, legendary story\u2019s been told,\u201d he explains. \u201cIf I was asked to do it by his family then I would do it, but I\u2019m not just going to do it to be doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWith the 2026-27 NBA season tipping off Oct. 20, one thing Shaq would like to see is more fire from Victor Wembanyama<\/a>, the towering 22-year-old phenom whose San Antonio Spurs were felled in the NBA Finals by the New York Knicks<\/a>. He says he enjoyed when Wemby threw Knicks superstar Jalen Brunson to the ground by the back of his head during the Finals and would like to see a lot more of that from the spindly Frenchman.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI like Wemby, and that was a mean moment, but I\u2019d like you to be mean all the time,\u201d offers Shaq. \u201cWhen things are difficult, I like breaking it down to its simplest form. It\u2019s difficult to shoot a lot of threes and hit a lot of threes in high-pressure games, so when you\u2019re 7\u20195\u201d, you have to take advantage of your skill set. There\u2019s no way a coach should even have the guts to say, \u2018[Alex] Caruso, when you switch on him, play him.\u2019 I would like him to read and react a little bit different. I\u2019m not saying be a post guy, but when a guy on you is smaller than you, I don\u2019t think you should shoot a jumper ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA moment that really got under Shaq\u2019s skin as a big man who was unstoppable in the low block was when the Knicks\u2019 Jose Alvarado, all 6\u20190\u201d of him, bodied up on Wemby in the Finals.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJose is my guy, but you need to put your arm around Jose and bash his face into the ground so he knows, \u2018OK, if you\u2019re gonna try to box me out, then I\u2019m going to put this elbow in the back of your neck every time,\u2019\u201d Shaq says. \u201cBut other than that, fabulous player, great shooter and definitely has all the tools. If you\u2019re playing for a historical franchise such as the Spurs, you\u2019re going to have to win at some point. They almost had it, but I need him to be meaner.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shaquille O\u2019Neal\u2019s second act has been full of surprises. The NBA legend and cultural icon has served as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":935202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,726,13800,590,502012,85,12838],"class_list":["post-935201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-kobe-bryant","tag-nba","tag-shaquille-ou2019neal","tag-sports","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=935201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/935202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=935201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=935201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=935201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}