Shutting Down People Concerned About His Mental Health, Shaquille O’Neal Brings Up Homeless People: “I Make $150 Million, I Don’t Want to Say I’m Mentally Unstable”

Jul 31, 2022 | 4:30 PM EDT

Shutting Down People Concerned About His Mental Health, Shaquille O’Neal Brings Up Homeless People: “I Make $150 Million, I Don’t Want to Say I’m Mentally Unstable”

Jul 31, 2022 | 4:30 PM EDT

NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal is one of the best centers to ever lace up. During his prime, he was an unstoppable force and his opponents had a torrid time dealing with him. Over the course of his successful career, O’Neal has won 4 NBA titles, 3 Finals MVP awards, and 1 NBA MVP award. He dominated both ends of the court like no other. Shaq is also one of the strongest individuals, not just physically, but also mentally.

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In the latest episode of the ‘Big Podcast with Shaq’ called ‘The Big Emotions’, the crew was joined by Liz Beecroft. She is a licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist. Beecroft talked about the stigma surrounding athletes taking care of their mental health. During her talk, Shaq asked, “Let’s just say that you are my therapist. How can you determine if I’m mentally unstable or not? What questions do you ask?”

Beecroft said that there are different evidence and research-based questionnaires that they have to go through. Then she explained various factors that she would be looking at during a session with a patient. When Beecroft talked about having been taught from a young age to keep your feelings inside and “man up”, Nischelle asked Shaq whether it sounds familiar.

Shaquille O’Neal talks about his childhood and mental health

The Lakers legend replied to Nischelle that it doesn’t sound familiar. He said that he was raised differently with a ‘No excuses’ motto. Shaq said, “Because I always look at real people. Like, I don’t wanna say, ‘Shaq, you can’t make free throws.’ But I make $150 million. I don’t wanna say I’m mentally unstable when there are homeless guy on the corner who’s really having something mentally wrong with him. Take care of them people. Don’t worry about me…”

Then Nischelle said that she believes that everyone has something wrong. She explained that everyone has different broken parts and traumas that may trigger one thing or the other. Nischelle mentioned that she feels like every athlete has something wrong with them. However, O’Neal said that he doesn’t believe that. The Big Diesel said that he’s living a great life, so he will ‘man up’ and fix it.

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Do you agree with Shaquille O’Neal’s comments about mental health? Let us know in the comments.

Written by

Bagavathi Eswaran

1,520 Articles

Bagavathi Eswaran is a senior NBA writer at EssentiallySports, having a strong passion for the sport since the age of ten. As a former college player, Bagavathi has been following the NBA for more than a decade and has found his calling in writing about the sport. He has used his expertise in covering the NBA, as well as other arenas of the sport, to write more than 1400 articles at ES. Bagavathi's pieces on the increasingly dominant presence of European basketball and those following the journey of women-ballers are particularly noteworthy. Along with being a full-time writer, he is also a part of a group of young coaches groomed as trainers by Junior NBA. Bagavathi has trained players from schools and colleges, as well as underprivileged students who can attend the camps for free.

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Pritam Priyedarshi