By Pierre-Andréa Fraile | Sports journalist
Despite having one of the most impressive CVs in NBA history, Shaquille O’Neal has also had to face waves of criticism during his career. A phenomenon that he would have had difficulty managing… until he found a miracle cure.
When choosing the most dominant player in history, many fans tend to mention his name. It also seems difficult to contradict them, as Shaquille O’Neal has shown himself to be reigning in the NBA rackets. That said, his impressive performances were not always unanimous within the NBA community and even led to strong criticism with which he had to learn to deal.
Shaquille O’Neal reveals the event that ‘saved’ his career
A real threat to opposing defenses from his first months in the league, O’Neal however had to wait until his eighth season to become NBA champion. Before that, he therefore placed himself as the target of journalists who considered him incapable of leading his team to the Larry O’Brien trophy. Attacks which clearly did not leave him indifferent, as he explained in the podcast Pound 4 Pound :
Shaquille O’Neal : I was reading all these articles saying I wasn’t that dominant, that I was terrible at free throws and that I was never going to win a title. These criticisms were eating away at me and what saved me was learning to leave all that stuff outside of my home.
A learning process which did not happen overnight and which would have been triggered by a happy event:
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Shaquille O’Neal : After the birth of my first child, who was a girl, I realized that I couldn’t take all my anger home. So, I had to re-program myself and once I walked through the door, it was like everything else didn’t exist. And that was a good thing because when I was only thinking about one match for a whole night, my performance the next day was terrible.
Instead, I would go home, turn off my brain for three hours, go to bed, and the next day I could concentrate fully again. So having children really allowed me to realize my dream.
Shaq therefore attributes his success on the court to this change in attitude and this sort of pacification once he crosses the threshold of his home. A process that his wife at the time must have been delighted with, he who admits to having had major nervous breakdowns beforehand:
Shaquille O’Neal : Before, when I lost a match, I destroyed my house on the way home. Especially if it was my fault. Like, if we were down by two points and I missed 10 free throws, I would flip my entire house. I was swinging the drawers all over the place, I was going crazy.
Anything but impervious to criticism, Shaquille O’Neal nevertheless understood that his salvation would come through better management of his emotions, particularly at home. He therefore considers the birth of his eldest daughter as a turning point in his career.
2024-05-04 19:40:00
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