Shaquille O'Neal says he does not reach out to NBA players from the past or the present, and he is blunt about why. “None. I don’t like athletes or superstars because they’re a--holes,” O'Neal said, adding that he left celebrity behind about 10 years ago and now wants to be treated like a regular guy.
The 54-year-old former NBA center said he denounced himself as a celebrity about 10 years ago because, in his view, “those people are weird. I’m not weird.” O'Neal, who won four NBA titles in 19 seasons and made 15 All-Star teams, said the choice was less about rejecting fame than about rejecting the behavior that can come with it.
He tied that stance to how he sees himself now. O'Neal said he wants to treat people with respect and avoid the distance that often comes with being a star. That message carried through the rest of his remarks, which centered on education and the work he said it took to earn the degrees behind his name.
O'Neal left LSU after his junior year to play in the NBA, then later returned to finish his bachelor’s degree. He also has an MBA and a Ph.D. in education, and he said people still assume the “Dr.” before his name must be honorary. “The funniest thing I get is, ‘Oh it’s honorary.’ I say, ‘No, it’s not. I had to go to school and write papers and do all that stuff,’” he said.
That friction — between public image and the life he says he actually built — is part of what makes the comments land now. O'Neal said he wanted his children, and children around him, to understand that education matters, even for someone who has already been “very super successful” without it. He also pointed to the NIL era, saying young athletes often want money first without being taught how to manage it.
The blunt answer about texting other players is the sharpest window into the larger point. O'Neal is not trying to sound accessible to every athlete or every celebrity. He is saying he stepped away from that world on purpose, and that the thing he wants remembered now is not just the rings or the fame, but the schooling that he says he earned the hard way.