Any celebrity would fear a memoir by their ex-wife even if there was nothing to hide. But when Undefeated: Changing the Rules and Winning on My Own Terms was set to release, we didn’t see a nervous Shaq. Shaunie Henderson billed her memoir as her “truth” and not a tell-all on her famous ex-husband. But that was the dominant takeaway from it when it was released this month. O’Neal still doesn’t have a bad word to say despite all the negative PR dogging Shaunie. Those closest to him, though, are feeling protective of him, including Leonard Armato, the guy who kind of raised Shaq since he was in LSU through his early NBA career.

Shaq and Shaunie were married from 2002 to 2011 and have five children between them, with Shaq adopting Shaunie’s eldest son from a previous relationship. So it left a few scratching their heads that Shaunie wrote, “Looking back, I don’t know if I was ever truly in love with this man, but I fell in love with the idea of ​​being married to a man with whom I had a family.”

Speaking on EssentiallySports FanCast, Leonard Armato felt hurt on Shaq’s behalf. Bay Area native, Vishal Kolar asked the brandmaker how athletes deal with their personal lives spilling into their brand image, and Armato’s response could be summarized as, ‘Look at Shaq’.

Vishal: “How do you advise them to deal with this strategy-wise because it’s really not under their control?”

Armato: “I think Shaq’s handled the whole Shaunie, book, divorce thing, beautifully. He took responsibility for the mistakes he made in the marriage, for sure. But I don’t know how that reflects unfavorably upon him when she says she never loved him. ‘Cause she married him. So how do you marry someone when you don’t even love them?” 

Armato and O’Neal’s professional relationship ended before Shaq and Shaunie married but he’s remained in Shaq’s social circle to this day. He probably has more insight into Shaq’s relationships than any other third person. O’Neal maintained his support for the mother of his kids before and after the book. In his own memoir, he admitted that infidelity on his part cost him his marriage.

Shaunie gave her perspective about Shaq stepping out but the wider NBA community, and even Shannon Sharpe and Chad Johnson felt sympathetic that he’s probably discovering she never really loved him. Despite the media frenzy, Armato showed confidence in Shaq’s tenacity.

“He didn’t take the bait and get into some mudslinging. He basically said she’s right.” Armato goes on to say that Shaq comes out of this looking good as he handles things appropriately.

Shaq and Shaunie out of context

Armato confirmed to Kolar that Shaq did the right thing with his social media response to that one line in Undefeated. O’Neal, though, left his Instagram followers pretty concerned when he wrote, “I wouldn’t have been in love with me either.” Even his and Shaunie’s sons, Shareef and Shaqir commented heartfelt “I love you” to their dad who isn’t normally this self-deprecating.

That post started another storm and Shaunie had to be her own lawyer on a People feature. She contended that the line was taken out of context and there’s really no bitterness between the co-parents.

It seems like Armato doesn’t have to watch over Shaq anymore. His old rookie can handle himself just fine.