Shaquille O’Neal has never been shy about sharing his thoughts on the evolution of basketball, and he’s known for advocating change in the sport. From his calls for rule changes to his critiques of playing styles, Shaq’s suggestions have sparked debate. Yet another one may be added to the list today with a new recommendation to boost viewership in the NBA.

On the latest episode of the ‘Big Podcast with Shaq’, he argued that an overreliance on three-pointers is causing a decline in NBA viewership. “I have a theory. It’s down because we are looking at the same thing. Everybody’s running the same plays, at the damn top of the key, dribble hand off. I was talking to a coach yesterday. He said he wanted to throw fifty three-pointers… I think viewership will continue to go down unless we switch things back up,” said Shaq during his podcast.

NBA viewership has, indeed, experienced fluctuating interest over the years. The start to this season featured fewer viewers than during last year. The season kicked off successfully with the New York Knicks playing the Boston Celtics and the Minnesota Timberwolves playing the Los Angeles Lakers on opening night. The rest of the games weren’t so successful, though.

The first dual game of the season on ESPN on October 22 declined roughly 42 percent compared to last year, according to Sports Media Watch. The next day followed a similar trend, as TNT’s viewership declined by over 30 percent. So Shaq believes, with game sometimes devolving into three-point shooting contests, changing things up in the execution of skills could give the fans something to look forward to — diversify their offensive approaches, mixing up inside play with long-range shots, much like the iconic style of play in past eras. “So… [when] everybody has the same strategy, I think it makes game boring,” he adds.

This suggestion to bring changes in the game is nothing new coming from the 4x champion.

On a recent episode of Angel Reese’s podcast, Shaq had a suggestion to add a new level of excitement to the game and also boost viewership. He proposed that lowering the rim in women’s basketball could empower more female athletes to dunk.

“The only thing that’s missing is the dunk… I’m not saying lower it to 9 feet or anything, just a little bit,” said Shaq during the podcast. However, his suggestion was immediately dismissed by the Chicago Sky’s power forward. “Just so we can dunk? No. I hate when men say that,” said Reese.

However, there was one more suggestion given by Shaq which ultimately resulted in a controversy.

Shaquille O’Neal faces criticism for his take

NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal is no stranger to controversy. A Hall of Famer who got himself into trouble with his criticism of Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert’s max contracts and mocking a disabled fan on social media in 2014 continues to make headlines. A few days back, he got himself into hot water after his suggestion for WNBA.

During an episode of Unapologetically Angel, O’Neal, who has previously been referred to as a “father figure,” by Reese, referenced her appearance at a recent Wild ‘N Out show, suggesting that it could serve as a strategy to sell more merchandise.

This did not sit well with the viewers, including a media veteran. “I think that that was just too much. I’m just being honest, I think it wasn’t a cool comment,” Angela Yee had shared. Shaq’s suggestion stemmed from his idea to bring in dunking into the WNBA to draw in more audience. But the approach was not it for many. Maybe his take on the NBA now could be the right direction.