Shaquille O'Neal clarifies stance on Joel Embiid's criticism, reflecting on big man's role shift in new NBA era

Former NBA star Shaquille O'Neal has often criticized Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid, and after his first appearance of the 2024-25 season, O'Neal clarified his criticism about the big man. Shaq also talked about the state of modern big men and how their game has changed.

O'Neal appeared as a guest on the "Dan Patrick Show" on Thursday, where he spoke about his thoughts on Embiid.

O'Neal has frequently faced criticism for being harsh on today's NBA big men, but he stated that Embiid has great potential and emphasized that modern bigs should not abandon their traditional role of dominating.

"Because he [Embiid] has so much potential," Shaq said. "I love all the big men. As you can see from shooting all the 3s, the big men is starting to slide away and enter into their atmosphere ... I'm not saying don't shoot the 3, but they shouldn't be the majority of your game.

"Majority of your game is to dominate, get your teammates open and when defenses start panicking and you can't really get a lot of room inside, then step out to open it back up."

O'Neal also expressed hope that his criticism of Embiid would motivate him to improve.

"Hopefully, he gets upset with what I'm saying and he turns it up. We, as fans, know what we see. We can look in the eye of a person and see if they want it. Something's going on with him. I don't know if he's hurt, he's injured, but he didn't look like he wants to be it."

O'Neal also took a moment to rave about Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic. He told Patrick that Jokic was the finest big man in the league and that he loved his style of play.

Jokic won his third MVP last season, although the former LA Lakers center believed Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the OKC Thunder should have won the award.

In his appearance at Patrick's show, Shaq said he wished to be proven wrong by Jokic this season.

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Shaquille O'Neal wants to see creativity in the league

Shaquille O'Neal is not fond of the 3-point revolution. In the Nov. 8 episode of his podcast, "The Big Podcast with Shaq," the former NBA star blamed the rise of 3-point shooting for the league's 47% drop in viewership.

In his interview with Patrick, he said that removing the 3-point shot and infusing "creativity" is one way to fix the league's viewership problem.

He compared the NBA to the podcast world, explaining that what makes podcasts successful is the diversity of content, yet most NBA teams follow the same offensive strategy with an overreliance on long-range shooting and a lack of creative play.

O'Neal claimed that viewership will continue to decline if the league doesn't address the 3-point issue.

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