Shaquille O’Neal shot 52% from the free throw line, 5th worse for players with more than 1200 misses. His close ones don’t make it easy for him to live with the fact. From the sets of TNT, Charles Barkley would often throw some subtle jabs, and recently Angel Reese tried mocking, but lost the bet. His mother, Dr. Lucille O’Neal, would carry a 3-word message during his games, and for the most recent revelation, a 10-year veteran had a harsh pep talk for the Lakers legend.

“He was unstoppable, and he was that Big.” Larry Johnson first gave props to his 1994 World Games teammate. “So I used to kill him all the time, like, right before the game, I’d grab him. I’d say, motherfu****, you the best player in our league, man. Learn how to shoot free throw.” The former Knicks star also revealed that he would inform Shaquille O’Neal about the Hack-a-Shaq strategy. It was a strategy that the team used to foul the 4x NBA Champion, as he would end up on the FT line.

“But I would say, say, man, you’re the best player in our league, and we can go down here and get a dude that worked at the Chicken Shack who played high school ball two or three years ago, still playing on the weekends, who shoot free throws better than you. And you’re the best player in our league. Work on your fuc**** free throws, bro,” Johnson continued on All the Smoke podcast.

But his free throw issue had not just Larry Johnson but other teams using it to their advantage as well. Reggie Miller stated that the only way to stop the former center was excessive fouls. Thus teams had to recruit and sign Bigs even if they were not NBA-level players. Because the team couldn’t rely on 1 or 2 centers as they would get into foul trouble, because of Hack-a-Shaq. That’s why Larry Johnson called Shaquille O’Neal “the beast man.”

In order to help with the FT failure, even Lucille O’Neal tried her best. She would carry a signboard with “bend your knees,” but Shaquille O’Neal would ask her not to do that anymore, stating he’d have trouble concentrating. Only earlier this year, he revealed the reason why he wasn’t good with free throws and unsurprisingly claimed it not to be his fault.

Shaquille O’Neal gave his “humble” reasoning behind his failure

On the episode of The Big Podcast, the Los Angeles Lakers legend first said, “I don’t know why I shot like that.” On the 16th episode released in April, Shaq continued, “Hope people don’t take this the wrong way. I hated the dark-skinned ball. Just don’t worry about how it sounds.”

He tried to convey that he preferred the fresh balls out of the box. This was never possible during any game, so that’s why believed there was a higher power that was sending a message. “Let me tell you something. This is just god’s way of keeping me humble.”

Only if he had scored more than 80%, there is a possibility he could have eclipsed Wilt Chamberlain’s scoring record. And then he could have without hesitation claimed to be the “Most Dominant Ever”, but now he is okay sharing the title with Chamberlain. So, Larry Johnson’s words may or may not have helped Shaq with his free throws, but he did go on to find Big Chicken in 2018 and scale his business to locations in Ohio, Los Angeles, Dayton, Las Vegas, and more.

“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.”