“I wanted you to be so mad that I wanted you to dominate.” – Shaquille O’Neal explains to Dwight Howard why he was mean to him his entire career
Shaq had good intentions but his approach missed the mark.
One of the more fascinating feuds of the NBA recently ended when prolific big men Shaquille O’Neal and Dwight Howard buried the hatchet with a heart-to-heart conversation at a restaurant in Orlando. It was a happy ending to a squabble that goes back over a decade when “DH12” was still the Magic’s main man.
The whole story behind that conversation was finally unveiled on “The Big Podcast,” where “Diesel” clarified that his comments were never intended to hurt Dwight Howard or become personal. Instead, his goal was simply to provoke Howard enough to unleash the beast within him.
Shaq kept taking shots at Howard on TNT
In that conversation with Howard, Shaq said he pulled no punches and immediately asked the former why he thought the latter didn’t like him. The 6’10” big man answered that he got the impression from all the times the 2000 league MVP needled him on “Inside the NBA” on TNT.
“During my career, it just felt like—just watching TNT—there was an episode where you picked up my cake and then just threw it on the ground. I was like, ‘Dang, is he really pissed off at me?'” Howard stated. “So, you know what I’m saying, it was just little things that made me go, ‘Dang, this big bro?’ But it wasn’t like—for me—it’s not like I wanted to go at him and do this, that, and the third… It was just that I didn’t have understanding.”
Dwight admitted that Shaq’s non-stop criticism left him confused regarding why the legendary Laker was going at him like this. “The Big Aristotle” then asked if the late, great Kobe Bryant was hard with him when they were teammates on the “Purple and Gold.” Dwight affirmed that the “Black Mamba” was equally tough on him, to which Shaq responded, “And who do you think he got that from?”
Shaq tried to be a mentor to Dwight
O’Neal, considered to be one of the greatest big men in NBA history, clarified that all he wanted to do with Dwight was to mentor him. He saw a lot of potential in the native of Atlanta, who had nuclear athleticism and shoulders like bowling balls.
“I was playing the mental role. I wanted you to be the mentee,” Shaq explained. “There are many different types. There’s the soft one—’ Hey, do this and that’—and then there’s the firm hand one. I wanted you to be so mad that I wanted you to dominate.”
“Like I told you before, if I said anything that went personal… I never tried to make it go personal. But I tried to sprinkle some to get you mad. Because I wanted you to hear that and say, ‘Okay, watch this,'” he added.
Shaq continued and said he did the same thing with his superstar teammates, constantly berating and reminding them they weren’t all that great to get them fired up. More often than not, O’Neal’s sharp words got the job done with the combination of Shaq and Kobe winning three rings and Wade and O’Neal getting one in 2006. The only superstar he admittedly never provoked was a young LeBron in Cleveland because LBJ had it all figured out.
“When I tell you I used to drive Kobe crazy—people thought we hated each other—but I knew I needed another guy. I’m going to get my 28 and 15 like I told you I needed to do, but I’m getting quadruple-teamed, triple-teamed. I needed another guy,” Shaq conveyed. “I used to drive that motherf****r crazy to the point where—’ Oh, they don’t like each other.'”
Howard wished Shaq had come at him differently
Howard said he understood the message, but he wished Shaq had expressed it differently. They might have spent all those years forging a bond and having an even better connection on the court if Shaq had approached him with kindness and understanding instead of harsh criticism.
“If you had come to me outside of the TNT stuff, just me and you talking man-to-man: ‘Hey, I need 28 and 15 from you You got to pick this up. I know you better than this. I need you to step this up,'” Dwight responded. “As your big brother—That’s what I didn’t have. There weren’t a lot of people that were able to come at me and say, ‘Hey man, turn this around,’ or, ‘I’m going to make you mad because I need you to dominate.'”
In the end, the feud between Shaq and Dwight boiled down to a matter of miscommunication. O’Neal had nothing but the best in mind for his fellow big man. However, his approach may have missed the mark.
“I was playing the mental role. I wanted you to be the mentee,” Shaq explained. “There are many different types. There’s the soft one—’ Hey, do this and that’—and then there’s the firm hand one. I wanted you to be so mad that I wanted you to dominate.”
“Like I told you before, if I said anything that went personal… I never tried to make it go personal. But I tried to sprinkle some to get you mad. Because I wanted you to hear that and say, ‘Okay, watch this,'” he added.
