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In the latest episode of the ‘Big Podcast with Shaq’, Shaquille O’Neal and the crew talked about a variety of subjects. During the show, co-host Nichelle Turner and Shaq talked about hiring female coaches in the NBA after the recently concluded WNBA season.
The Las Vegas Aces won their first-ever championship under rookie coach Becky Hammon, who also won the 2021-22 WNBA coach of the year. But before being a coach for the Aces, Hammon was an assistant coach under Gregg Popovich for the San Antonio Spurs. Before the previous season, as per reports, Hammon was a top contender for the Portland Trail Blazers job along with former WNBA star Dawn Staley, who led the University of South Carolina to the NCAA Division I championship this year.
But the Trail Blazers elected former NBA Champion Chauncey Billups. Hence Turner asked Shaq if Portland made the right decision and whether female coaches should be given an opportunity in the NBA. Reacting to the question, Shaq expressed that ability and merit should be the only criteria in question.
“If they are better qualified than Chauncey Billups? Then yes. Okay? I don’t know how you tell a person is better qualified or not. But when I’m running a company, I need the top people. Male or female,” Shaq replied.
Further in the podcast, Shaq addressed the recent comments made by Brooklyn Nets guard Ben Simmons about the criticism he faced over the past year and the mental health which he was dealing with. Addressing these comments, O’Neal talked about how he calls what he sees. Big Diesel then expressed that criticism will be part of the life of any athlete and one must need to understand how to deal with it.
He said, "First of all if you play at 9:30 and we come on at 10 and we say something, it’s just what we see. The mental health thing ain’t come out until everybody start bashing you, then you let people know you have mental health problems…”
“I told the world, ‘He DM’d me, he told me he was going through some problems and I said I was gonna back off.’ Guess what? Everybody goes through struggles. We all do. Everybody goes through struggles. We all do. But this is the game we play. This is the life we live. We ‘gon take criticism. They pay us a lot of money. Somehow, you have to deal with it.”