As any basketball fan knows, Shaquille O’Neal is a big man with an even bigger personality. He dominated his opponents in the paint, and judging from the latest story shared by Phoenix Suns teammate Grant Hill, players on his own team shouldn’t have crossed him, either.
Joining CBS Sports HQ, Hill talked about the time that Shaq choked out NBA veteran Gordan Giricek, who had a cup of coffee with the Suns in the 2008 season.
“Giricek was a good player from Croatia, a good shooter, but he never passed the ball inside. He would always kind of look Shaq off and shoot it. And they would go back and forth, exchange words, and Giricek would kind of talk trash to Shaq. And so one day Shaq was like, ‘You know what, I’mma let this guy know who I am.’ It was right before a big game in Phoenix against Dallas. We have our team meeting. The meeting ends, I go use the restroom, I come out. Giricek’s laid out on the floor, and I’m like, ‘Come on Shaq! We’re trying to win!’” —Grant Hill
There you have it. On paper, it was easy for teams to build a functional offense around Shaq by surrounding him with three-point shooters, but if any of those shooters forgot the dominant post presence anchoring the paint Shaq would remind them with the personal touch.
Clearly, fighting his teammates is exactly the kind of character-building activity that steels a man for swimming with the sharks.
(H/T Twitter/CBSSports)
