Shaquille O’Neal has always stated that he used criticism as a mechanism to better himself. He would try to use it on his teammates too, calling them out to motivate them. Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade for some. You’d think having the same sports psychologist, athletes would carry similar tactics. But track and field star Twanisha Terry’s experience may just point otherwise.

“I’m looking around for a sports psychologist, and I just stumbled upon somebody. I’m just Googling, and then I emailed the guy, and all of a sudden, his team got back to me immediately, and it just so happened to be someone that was a sports psychologist to Kobe and Shaq.” Terry said on the OGs podcast and she still wasn’t sure if anything would materialize after a few emails.

“I may not even be in his realm of athletes. We talk about Kobe and Shaq. So then someone from his team emailed me back, and I got so excited and so happy in that moment, even though I wasn’t expecting anything to happen in the 23 season because the season is almost over,” she adds.

Terry, known for her 100m race, had a hard time proving her dominance and setting the PB during the 2023 season. For the 200m, it was the opposite case. As she claimed, since nobody had worldly expectations from her considering it was not her expertise, she got to have fun with it. This would lead her to record 4 PB across the season. But as she got back to 100m, it was a rather stressful situation for her. “we realizing it’s mental,” she says, recalling how she ended up looking for a psychologist.

It would likely be George Mumford, a sports psychologist to Kobe, Shaq, and Michael Jordan. The 2-time World Champion has also called him a ‘man full of wisdom’ previously and admitted he has helped her look at things from different perspectives. ‘Don’t let other people dictate how you feel’, was one thing she had iterated Mumford emphasized. Well, Shaq wouldn’t exactly fit the category there, considering other people’s words only turned him into a “Hulk.”

But it definitely worked for Terry as she narrated to Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller.

“As I’m talking to him, he’s listening to the verbiage that I’m using the way I’m saying things, and he’s like, ‘You need to take yeah but out your vocabulary.'” The 2024 Olympic Gold medalist continued, “Because all you’re doing is diminishing your confidence. You’re not going into the race confident.” She would go on near her PB by a millisecond that race, surprising herself.

So positive affirmation was the key for Terry and her performance, but Shaquille used the opposite method and it worked too.

Shaquille O’Neal and his mind game strategy on Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade

Earlier this year, the Lakers legend claimed he would add another degree to his name. The Big Diesel wants to pursue Sports Psychology so that people start taking his judgment seriously. Recently his criticism towards Rudy Gobert was labeled as hatred by fans and maybe the degree helps O’Neal to justify his reasons. However, he needed no such degree back in the day to prove his point.

When he met Kobe Bryant, Shaquille started annoying Black Mamba. He implied that he would doubt Bryant about his ability and that would annoy him. So the shooting guard would spend extra hours in the gym just to prove to O’Neal that the assessment was wrong. Similarly, during the spell at the Miami Heat with Dwyane Wade, Superman would argue with Flash.

During the 2006 finals, “The f**k you going to do, man? You want to be a man? What the f**k you going to do?” were the encouraging statements that Shaquille O’Neal used. And it did work as Shaq added his 4th ring and Wade earned his first. Obviously, O’Neal was no psychologist, but knew what would ignite the fire inside his teammates.

“Stay tuned for more such updates and join us for the exciting second episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and Mountain West All-Freshman Team Selection, Asia Avinger.”