“The conversation included Hailey showing Shaq some of the hateful comments she’s getting … with Shaq telling her to pay the haters no mind because none of them actually know her,” reported TMZ back in July 2024. While Shaquille O’Neal could have certainly used someone better than the ‘Hawk Tuah’ girl to send this message to, the principle still stands. Being a famous person means that one will constantly have to deal with hate messages. Especially when one is an NBA athlete. After all, if you have fans of one team supporting you, then you have fans of 29 other teams cursing you. Even as a former player, Shaq has to face the barrage of messages from people who do not hold the Lakers legend in high regard. However, thanks to Michael Jordan, Shaq learned a long time ago to turn the other cheek to that hate.

The 53-year-old recently hosted another episode of his long-running ‘The Big Podcast’. Shaq fans would have certainly had to do a double-take when they found out that the big man was interviewing Dwight Howard, aka the former player with whom he allegedly had a long-running beef! Fortunately, none of that came up during the episode. In fact, Shaq was even willing to share some words of wisdom when asked about his ‘I don’t give a f**k’ attitude. Shaq revealed that he focused on the things that mattered to him in life. In chronological order, “For me, it was my mama. That’s Number 1. Then, my kids. Then, my crew. Then, my money”.

Shaq is known for coming up with the ‘G14 Classification’, which means that a person has the ‘right’ to talk about basketball only if they have achieved a certain level of success in the sport. As we now know, the inspiration behind that rule was none other than the Chicago Bulls legend.

“(Michael) Jordan get on there, and say ‘Hey man, y’all cut that sh*t up, now I got to listen’. Anybody else say, I’m not listening to you” Shaq revealed. The only non-basketball person whom the 4x NBA champion would be willing to listen to, when it came to criticism, was Lucielle O’Neal, his mother. After all, he revealed that “my mama, your mama call and say ‘y’all stop it’, we got to stop it. See what I’m saying?”. We do, Shaq. We certainly do.

Despite not playing in the social media age, both Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal had to deal with haters. For the Bulls star, sometimes it was the fans of those ‘Bad Boy’ Detroit Pistons. Otherwise, it would be supporters of other rival teams who downplayed His Airness’s prowess. Either that, or they criticized him over his gambling habit. As highlighted by RTE, Jordan would reveal playing mind games with himself that would help produce his best performances. The 6x NBA champion would use everyday criticism and petty disrespect as motivational fuel. He did not have to make any public comments, as he would prove his naysayers wrong through his performance. If there is a reason why the ‘And I took that personally’ meme has gotten this much traction, it is because people know that Jordan used action to respond back to words.

Despite the shell he created, there was one person whom Michael Jordan still took some valuable advice/criticism from. His mother, Deloris Jordan. She was the one who convinced him to go with Nike when the then-young Jordan wanted to partner up with Adidas. During his NBA run, he often got advice. As he once revealed, “It’s not just my father. My mother calls me practically every day, reiterating, ‘Keep your nose clean’. Then she ends the conversation… The last word is, ‘Keep your nose clean’. That’s a constant reminder”. Shaq showed adopting that lesson for himself.

Lucille went through her issues, which included drug addiction. Despite that, the former player never got dissuaded from taking in the wisdom his mother shared. This is what motivated him throughout his NBA run. When discussing why he did not choose to retire earlier than he eventually did, Shaq said, “The secret was just having special motivation; my motivation was always being able to get my mother what she wants. I did that for as long as I could, and of course, she has what she wants.” That special level of respect between two people can shun away all haters spread around the world.

Fortunately, in the rare instance when that hate got to Shaq, Lucille was there to remind him to rise above things. However, the lesson he learned from Lucille led to Shaq using it as justification for his own hateful comments.

Shaquille O’Neal once revealed receiving valuable advice from Lucille on handling criticism: “see if there’s some truth….”

Shaquille O’Neal himself turned into a critic after joining the crew of ‘NBA on TNT’. When he was not playing pranks and fooling around with the trio of Charles Barkley, Ernie Johnson Jr., and Kenny Smith, the 5x NBA champion was analyzing and giving his opinions on certain players/teams. Sometimes, the criticism wasn’t deemed too nice. Denver Nuggets’ Jamal Murray became one of Shaq’s targets back in January 2025, when he said “Mr. Murray, where have you been? I don’t know if you’re injured or not, so I’m not going to really go in, but I guarantee you this. Once you step up and play to the level to help you get a championship, y’all will be champions again”.

Murray, in response, pulled off a Jordan and scored 32 points in the first half of a game. This led to Shaq explaining why he chose to give the criticism in the first place.

“She (Dr. Lucille O’Neal) called me at home one day being sad. I said, ‘Mom, they always criticize me. I’m doing this, this, this’. And she said, ‘baby, before you let it get you down, see if there’s some truth inside the criticism.’” Shaq believed that there was truth in his criticism. After all, the former player highlighted that “He hasn’t been playing like Jamal Murray when they won the championship. Used to average 21. He’s only down two points, 19. Last five or six games, he’s had under 20 points”. Having learned the lesson from Lucille, the Big Aristotle highlighted that he wouldn’t pass criticism unless it was warranted.

Well, maybe Jamal Murray also needs to learn to not let the hate get to him. Who knows, maybe he also becomes an analyst after a few years, and then gets to pass judgment on others.