Shaquille O'Neal sympathetically nods to past as he shares clip of Michael Jordan admitting to the curse of competitive nature
Shaquille O'Neal and Michael Jordan were two of the most dominant players of all time in the NBA and won it all in the league. Jordan has been part of the GOAT conversation, whereas O'Neal is viewed as the most dominant force inside the paint in NBA history.
O'Neal and Jordan retired as a four-time and six-time champion, respectively.
Shaquille took to Instagram to share a story of Jordan talking about being competitive and how he had to deal with that once he retired from the league. Jordan admitted on Old-Head to Luc Longley that not playing and not competing to win was very difficult to cope with after his retirement.
"110%. I was such a competitive player and each and every day felt the need to always get ahead of my opponent. Well when you are out of sports and you are in normal life, you don't shed that armor that you actually have coated yourself with based on your lifestyle and that work ethic. You have that way around it and that's frustrating. I look at everything from a competitive nature, I am cursed from a competitive standpoint that I cannot watch or compete or be a part of things without competition," Michael told Luc.
What Michael says here makes sense, as we have seen a majority of the top NBA superstars being extremely competitive on the floor and setting their sights on the prize.
Michael Jordan's advice to Shaquille O'Neal after the 1996 Eastern Conference Finals
Jordan and O'Neal faced each other 21 times during their career in the NBA, with the Chicago Bulls legend winning 12 of those games.
Then with Chicago, one of Jordan's major rivals was the Orlando Magic, led by O'Neal. Orlando became the last team to eliminate the Bulls from the postseason during the Michael Jordan era. This happened back in 1995 and the Eastern Conference semi-finals, where the Magic won in six games.
A year later, the Bulls took their revenge and swept the Eastern Conference Finals series with Orlando en route to their fourth NBA title in the 1990s. After the end of the series, Michael had some advice for Shaquille.
"Before I came to LA, Orlando Magic versus Chicago Bulls, we had beaten them the year before, went to the Finals and got swept... Michael Jordan came back stronger than ever and swept again. Michael my fraternity brother, puts his hand on my shoulder and says, 'Before you succeed, you must first learn how to fail.' And I had no idea what that meant," Shaquille O'Neal said during an appearance on the Fair Game, via Sports Illustrated.
O'Neal moved to the LA Lakers after that series and spent eight years there, winning three straight titles (2000-2002).
He became even better during his stint with the Lakers, and it looked like Jordan's advice helped him turn into a winner and champion.