Exposing Prolonged Public Slander, Old Lady Triumphs Over Shaquille O’Neal’s “Surgeon” To Fix 7ft Giant’s Biggest Hindrance

NBA Legend Shaquille O’Neal made a name for himself in the NBA, displaying his basketball prowess for 19 seasons. Despite his huge size, he moved like a forward in his prime. He was unstoppable in the post and when he came running down the court, rarely anyone dared to step in his way. Despite all he possessed, Shaq had some weaknesses on the basketball court as well. The 51-year-old recently reminded his fans of the same after sharing a post of a hilarious old lady on social media.

O’Neal, who required the help of a “surgeon” during his peak, got more lessons from the old lady about one of his biggest weaknesses.

Shaquille O’Neal gets some helpful advice from a stranger

There is a famous saying: God doesn’t gift with both hands. If an individual is possessed with an abundance of strength, it wouldn’t be without a significant amount of weaknesses as well. For the 15x NBA All-Star, that weakness lay in his free-throwing skills. A few hours ago, Shaq uploaded a video on Instagram which featured an old woman approaching the former player while he was sitting in a restaurant. Slinging a purse in her left hand, she proceeded to give some advice to the 4x NBA Champion.

“I know why your free throws ain’t going down,” said the woman while talking to Shaq. She then mimicked a free throw, showing him how it should be done and, at the same time, providing some useful guidance. “It’s because of the follow-through baby. Gotta have that touch,” she told Shaq.

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The clip then transitioned to Shaq. He had a low exasperated expression toward the woman and then proceeded to mimic the way the woman spoke in a comedic manner. Shaq captioned the post “i kno i know #followthrough”.

Shaquille O’Neal’s free-throwing skills were so poor, an entire defensive strategy was named after him. A strategy, titled ‘Hack-a-Shaq’, involves the opposition committing intentional fouls so that the poor shooters from the opposite team have to make free throws.

The 4x NBA champion took lessons from a “shooting surgeon“

The Los Angeles Lakers felt that they really need to improve upon this deficiency if they were to succeed. The team hired Ed Palubinskas, a former Australian basketball player, as a shooting coach. Dubbed a “shooting surgeon” by many, Palubinskas helped Shaq during the 2000-2001 season to improve upon his free throws.

Thanks to the “surgeon”, hope was restored in Shaq as he was able to improve his free throw percentage to 64.9%. In the 2002-2003 season, Shaq was able to shoot 62% from the line. Despite the initial success, however, the flow could not be maintained. It was only a year later when the same percentage dropped to 49%. After that, Shaq never recovered. O’Neal ended his career by averaging 52.7% from the charity stripe, missing almost 5300 free throws in total.

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12 years after retirement and Shaq still gets reminded of his weakness. It has gotten to the point that even his own sons have mocked him for his skill deficiency. It seems that the 4x NBA champion won’t be able to live down his free-throwing skills for quite some time.