Former Suns player Gives a Glimpse of How Shaquille O’Neal Welcomes Rookies into the League
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Shaquille O’Neal did not limit his loyalty to a single NBA team. The Big Diesel played for six teams in his career, where he had a one-year stop at Phoenix to play for the Suns.
Goran Dragic entered the league with the Suns when Shaq was part of the team. In a recent revelation, ‘The Dragon’ informed how he used to get hazed as a rookie, especially at the hands of the 4x NBA champion.
Coming into the NBA as a rookie is never easy. Besides the tall ladder one to climb to make to the top, teammates will never go easy on a rookie. It is a prevalent tradition that has been a part of the league for many years.
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Dragic was no stranger to some old-fashioned hazing. During his rookie year in Phoenix, Dragic often found himself under the wing of Shaquille O’Neal, who asked him to do tasks that would that made very little sense.
Shaquille O’Neal is a total savage in messing with rookies
No one in the NBA would have wanted to mess with Shaq. On the court, opponents feared his might and often failed to contain him from scoring. When you come into the team as a rookie, there’s nothing you can do but nod to whatever Shaq asks you to do.
Goran Dragic has been on the receiving end of it, and there’s one priceless story. The current Miami player appeared on a recent episode of ‘The Woj Pod’ where he had an extensive chat with Adrian Wojnarowski about his career, his current team, Jimmy Butler’s leadership, and more.
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A story about his rookie year popped up at one point, and Shaq came into the scene as well. “I have to admit, he was great,” Dragic said, talking about how Shaq treated him as a rookie. “He did take care of me. He had a lot of jokes, he was so funny,” he added.
“I always had to carry his keyboard when we were going away. It is a big keyboard,” Dragic said. “A few times my room was next to his and I never heard him play on it.
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“At the end of the season, I asked him: ‘Hey Shaq, did you ever play on the keyboard?’ He said, ‘no.’ I said, ‘Why not? He said, ‘No, it doesn’t work. It’s broke.’”
Imagine, a poor Dragic, who had to carry a keyboard for the entire season, just to find out that it never worked in the first place. Classic Shaq!