Shaq opens up about his horrible last season in Boston today, only hours ago, saying, “I felt so bad.”
Shaq was so used to ruling the court that when his skills eventually began to wane, he felt helpless.
The big man played well past his peak; in his last season with the Boston Celtics in 2010–11, he only scored 9.2 points per game on average.
In a recent installment of “The Old Man and the Three,” JJ Redick’s podcast, O’Neal talked candidly about the most difficult aspect of his golden years coming to an end.
“Not being ‘him,'” he murmured. “He is 28/10. In Boston, F****n’ averaged nine points. I thought I was stealing from the people. When they contacted me back and said, “Hey man, we owe you $1.5 [million],” I felt really horrible. F*****g, keep it, I said. Hold onto it. I am not going there to score six points on average. I was in control for so long that I didn’t even consider the possibility that it would end.
“.. I was initially struck by it when I was left off of the All Star squad. I was like, “Oh, I don’t want to play,” but I was also like, “Dude, I won the All-Star game 12 or 13 times straight.” I’m not even getting any f*****g votes anymore. That section therefore kind of screwed me up.
Shaq continued, saying that at the time, his prior accomplishments didn’t provide him much solace since, in his words, he was “programmed to do more.”
When Shaq was at his best, he was really dominating.
With a career-high 29.7 points and 13.6 rebounds per game, he won the league MVP award, the MVP of the Finals, and the title in his finest season.
It was the first of three titles he would win with the Lakers in tandem with Kobe Bryant.
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