Michael Jordan indirectly played a huge part in changing Shaquille O’Neal‘s perspective on basketball. The 7-foot giant’s love for the game helped him become a top prospect before he got drafted into the NBA. First, he dominated in school, then at college with the LSU Tigers, and later in the NBA as well. However, he was not impressed by the players in the NBA before he got drafted. He thought they were not a big of a challenge for him until he met Michael Jordan. In his show The Big Podcast, the 4x champion opened up about Michael Jordan’s godly moves, that made him fall in love with basketball once again.
Former NBA veteran JJ Redick questioned about the Chicago Bulls legend, and Shaq replied, “I don’t know what god looks like, but it’s like seeing god. Because I went to a couple of NBA games as a youngster. I wasn’t really impressed. David Robinson impressed a little bit, but the stuff that he[Jordan] did on TV, and then you see it in real life, it’s like ‘Oh my god, it is really real‘.”
This is the effect that MJ had, not only on Shaq but on a lot of basketball fans back then. To put it in simple words, the NBA can be defined as before Michael Jordan and after Michael Jordan, and Shaq’s above words are proof of it.
