Shaq Blames God and “Black Basketballs” for the Biggest Regret of His Lakers Career

The legendary player Shaquille O’Neal, recognized for his jaw-dropping dunks and commanding presence in the low post, has playfully provided a special rationale for his difficulties converting free throws while he was a member of the Los Angeles Lakers. Shaq recently accused an unexpected party—the color of the basketballs—and pointed the blame at a higher authority in an interview with a humorous tone. O’Neal stated, “God wasn’t having it with the free throws. He made the basketballs black, you know, gotta make it tough for the big fella huh?“

During his recent podcast, O’Neal, who is renowned for favoring a white basketball when shooting, clarified his idea. “I like the white ball,” he went on to say. “The rotations are easier to see for me. Spinning, black ball, everything that. It makes me lose focus.”

Shaq’s difficulties stepping up to the free throw line are widely known. He had a terrible lifetime percentage of 52.7% while shooting from the charity stripe. During his time with the Lakers, his tendency to foul was evident as he only made 49.5% of his free throws.

Being the comedian, Shaq, however, used his shortcomings to his advantage, even offering a different shooting technique if he were suddenly gifted with Steph Curry-like shooting ability. “Consider me making free throws akin to Steph Curry,” O’Neal thought to himself. “It would need them to lift the rim for me. It would most likely also need them to enlarge the basketballs. Shake it down from downtown!“

Shaquille O’Neal’s Shooting Throughout His NBA Career

Shaq’s legendary personality and unquestionable skill on the court established his status as one of the greatest legendary Lakers of all time, even though his struggles with free throws occasionally irritated Lakers supporters. Shaq and Kobe Bryant guided the Lakers to three NBA titles during their tenure together, despite Shaq’s mediocre free throw shooting.

Although Shaquille O’Neal is an established name because of his strength, dunks, and overall domination, his smooth jump jumper wasn’t quite well-known. Even though he occasionally made clutch free throws, his offensive repertoire was centered on creating chaos in the paint.

 O’Neal played this game mostly with the mentality of another time. The most famous characteristic of this player was his size – his height of 7’1″ and a superior weight of around three hundred pounds made him a hardcore fighter once he got close to the rim. Since he was a tall person with enough strength and agility, he was very hard to take down. The rebounds were then completed with either a far-reaching crashing or blocking players being pushed out of the way.

Shaq made only 52.7% of his free throw attempts but was a 7-foot 1 inch center which is, considering his size, of no value. Some of these fans, however, disagreed with this interpretation by claiming that their opponent counterparts actually played dirty tactics to slow down the opponent.