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“It’s my fault” – Shaquille O’Neal claims he changed how NBA centers play forever
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- “It’s my fault” – Shaquille O’Neal claims he changed how NBA centers play forever
The name of the game today in the NBA is pace and space. There is a shooter ready to launch the ball from deep every time they get a sliver of space on the perimeter, and uber-athletic guys looking to penetrate and create an advantage over their defender. Even though in the past there were guys capable of shooting the lights out, it seems that in the last decade it has intensified so much that it has not skipped anyone.
The position that was traditionally tied to the painted area is now required to fire away when given the chance. Of course, we are talking about big men and their respective revolution in basketball as a whole. And one guy who became an MVP and a four-time champion on the back of his physicality and dominance close to the basket, Shaquille O'Neal , believes that it is because of him that centers started drifting out to the perimeter more, trying to find their points in a different way.
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"It's my fault. Because, when I was playing, no big guy wanted that funk, so they all moved out," the legendary center said about the evolution of the position that once meant having grueling battles in the shaded area.
"Think about it. We are all products of our environment. So, when I was growing up, I watched Kareem, I watched Ewing, I watched Robinson. I was told to get inside. But when I was playing, what was opposing centers trying to do, 'Bring Shaq out. Bring Shaq out…' So, you got guys like Dirks, Duncans, the Garnetts. They would pick and pop, so all these kids, they're watching bigs do pick and pop now," Shaq explained.
Because of Shaq, the centers were going outside
The way Shaq puts it makes very much sense. Younger generations practice what they see and try to add a little bit of their own to it in the process. For O'Neal, he was watching one of the greatest generations of big men battling it out night after night, throwing elbows and imposing their dominance that way. So he built on that and became arguably the most dominant player of all time. Teams would often have to throw everything and the kitchen sink just to try to stop him. Most of the time, there wasn't anything you could do but hope he wasn't fully locked in that night.
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However, that same dominance forced opponents to adjust their approach as well. Instead of struggling and battling with a 7'1", 325-pound force inside, they turned to spacing as their main weapon. Players, as Shaq mentioned, started moving away from the physical confrontation that awaited them near the basket and began relying more on mid-range shots and eventually three-pointers. Add to that the growing use of analytics, and you get a whole generation of centers launching shots from deep without hesitation.
O'Neal doesn't see things changing
As far as O'Neal is concerned, he doesn't see things going back to how they once were. The NBA has become more of a copycat league, where everyone wants to be like Stephen Curry . The only problem is, not everyone is the greatest shooter of all time, not even close. That is exactly what the Los Angeles Lakers icon believes is the main issue today.
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Using Joel Embiid as an example, Shaq argued that more and more players are moving away from their natural advantages just to shoot from the outside. Instead of imposing their will the way they know best, even if it's not considered "trendy" in today's basketball landscape, they adapt to what the game demands.
Shaq remains a true advocate of that old-school approach, and he is not changing that anytime soon. And honestly, who can blame him? He dominated an entire era with his unapologetic style, and in his eyes, if today's big men are launching threes instead of battling inside, it all circles back to him!
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Apr 23, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
