Shaq on If LeBron Killed the Dunk Contest, Load Management and New Lilly Team USA Partnership

I've been making 700 million for 2 years tax-free 2026, you know, the stuff that they have now.

I, I would love to be a 17 year old girl right now.

I know your father represented this country, and you got a chance to be an Olympian.

How special is representing the US and being an Olympian in general, as we're here at the Winter Olympics?

You know, growing up as a kid watching it was was great.

For the entire US to be able to be a part of that.

2 or 3 times.

You know, it was my, my mindset is definitely going to do this for the US.

You know, to be one of the top 12 guys that they picked to be on the team.

I'm gonna just go out there and represent my city, represent the whole country, and you know, just try to get a win.

You know, we're fresh off the NBA All-Star Weekend and dunk contest, and there's always so much conversation about it.

What are your thoughts on the state of where the dunk contest is these days?

It was terrible again this year, but I have a solution for that.

I'll get your information and I'll tell you what the solution is.

But, uh, you know, for me.

My father did a great job of instilling in me that people pay to watch you perform, give them a show.

Because in this thing of ours, this dichotomy of, you know, the, the business of basketball, that's how everybody eats, and these guys are eating very, very well.

So to protect that.

You got to put out a good product.

So, you know, it was always my mindset to just go out there and just put on the show.

Victor Wimbanana and Anthony Edwards did that.

They set the tone and they played well and you know, the, the, uh, All-Star Sunday was definitely a success.

Now we just got to fix Saturday to bring it back to where it was because I remember in high school, you know, you, you watched Larry Bird in three-point shootout, Michael Jordan versus.

Dominique in the dunk contest and the next day , Magic, Charles and David Robinson, all these great guys.

It was a, it was a fun, fun weekend to attend.

Everybody in sports media has pretty much identified LeBron as the culprit of killing the dunk contest.

Do you think that's a fair criticism?

Man, I'm not going to criticize LeBron, but you, you know, as a, as a guy, as a fan, you like to see the best compete.

And it's very unfortunate and very sad that he didn't compete.

I'm not going to say it's his fault, but I would have loved to see him compete in the dunk contest because every now and then like I played with him a couple of years, every now and then in the layup line, he would do something that will make the crowd go crazy.

I want to congratulate you on this partnership with Lily.

Can you talk about how big this athlete recovery program is and why it's so important to the journey of our best athletes in the world?

Yeah, I'm here with, uh, Lily to, uh, promote the athlete recovery program, as you said, you know, it's important that when, you know, athletes get injured, they, they do what's necessary to come back, rest and recovery so they can get back to playing.

You know, I played.

I injured all the time and you know, I definitely have the resources to get back.

So I'm glad that, you know, Lily and I are, are launching this program and Lily, we believe health above all.

We love it.

Shaq and Lily, baby.

You talked about how many injuries you sustained and battled through.

If the health technology and resources were where they're at today in your playing days, what would that look like?

I've been making 700 million for 2 years, tax-free.

Like they didn't have the, the, the, the things and, you know, I had some resources but at 2026, you know, the stuff that they have now.

I, I would love to be a 17 year old kid right now.

It's gotten to a point where because of load management, the NBA had to create a minimum game requirement to win awards and things.

How do you feel about this minimum games requirement?

It's unfortunate that you don't want to give the people a show.

You know, I, I missed a lot of games because of injury, real injuries.

I, you know, later in my career, it was a low management thing, but, you know, I was taught that if you can walk.

You can play.

If you can catch, you can play.

If you can see, you can play.

You know, I took pride in in in locating families, little kids and little kids wearing my shoes, wearing my jerseys, giving them a good show because When I was a youngster in Madison Square Garden, 3rd row up, I see my idol go baseline and throw it down and I looked at my father.

I was like, this is what I want to do, sir.

He's like, if you listen to me, I'll make you one of the greatest NBA players.

And along the line, he taught me valuable lessons.

And one of the lessons was you people are paying a lot of money to watch you perform, put on the show.

Very easy.

You wake up, you practice 1 hour, 2 hours a day.

Take a nap, you play a game an hour, an hour and a half, and you make a lot of money.

You know, the people that really work hard in life to keep this country going don't make.

Close to what we make.

So I think it's part of our duty to give them a good show.

I always said that sports and music are the things that bring people together.

So while you guys are cutting and editing and doing all the hard work that you do, when you come home, you want to see a good game.

I'm gonna give you a good game.

That's, that's my mentality.

Well, with that in mind, you know, you've been part of some of the most iconic 12 punches in NBA history.

We had you and Penny, we had you and Kobe, we had you and D Wade.

Who in today's game would you want to pair up with and be a 12 punch with?

Steph Curry.

Because after you double me, I'm gonna kick it to him and that jumper gonna look so pretty going through the net.

So you're going to average 2020, 20.

No, I'm average 40, 20 and 6.

Uh, definitely would like to play with him.

We love to play against the sinners that y'all think are great.

And we love to watch Shay Gilchs Alexander watch him up up close because on TV it's it's really good, but when you see him up close, like he's, he's incredible.

I just mentioned Kobe, and we're here in Italy.

Kobe's all stomping grounds.

I know Kobe was always super laser focused on the game, but do you remember him ever sharing stories about growing up in Italy with you?

When, when, uh, when Kobe first came, he was very to himself.

And he was, he's one of those kids, like you said, it was laser focused and you know, he's one of those guys that wanted to be the best ever.

So he, he, he definitely prepared that way.

So he was always lazy, like never really hung out with us, never did the things that we do.

He's always focused on the guy.

I remember one day him and telling me he's going to be the Will Smith of the NBA.

I didn't know what it meant, but I was like, OK, whatever you say, son.

Would you say it's the Will Smith of the NBA?

Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know, his work ethic was.

Second to none.

One of the craziest headlines that has come out of these Olympics is that they ran out of 10,000 condoms in 3 days in the Olympic village.

As a former Olympian who's been in an Olympic village before, who knows how things work, what do you make of that headline?

Lesson in life, whenever they give you a great stat and the, and the number is even, is cap.

They would have said we ran out of 7420 counts.

I don't believe, but you ran out of 10,000 condoms in 3 days.

That's impossible.

That's Yeah, like it's.

Oh, my, my, I invested this and I made 700.

No, like whenever like the number is always perfectly even, it's always kept so.

But I tried to do the math.

Uh, how many athletes?

OK, so 3000.

They run out in 3 days.

10,000.

So once a day.

So each athlete would have to do it 3 times a day.

That's also cap.

You can't do that and skate.

3, you're going to do 3 and try to skate cap.

Cap, you might do 3 and curl, but you might do 3 and luge and lay down, but the skating and doing the flips, that's cap.

And then guess what, 3 times 2, that's 9000, you still got 1000 left.

So some people got to get 4 in cap, cap, cap, cap all day.

Nice headline .

One of my favorite things about you is your philanthropy, and not even the donations, but the things you do in real life when you walk into Kmart or Walmart and things like that.

Like, what makes your heart so full that you just wanna do things like that for people?

It's just like making people happy.

Because I want to know if the story gets out and gets to my mother, it's going to make her very, very happy.

And that that's like the greatest reward I can get because I can remember from 4 to 17, I was a high-level juvenile delinquent.

And wasn't sure where I was going to be in life.

But you know, it seemed like I wasn't listening, but I was always listening, always watching, and one of the lessons my parents taught me, you can always help those in need.

Every time I go into the Best Buy any store, I'm always looking for myself in the past.

Like one time there was a lady, she was looking at the computers and she started off at the max 1600 and I seen the sugar head.

And she went down to the lower back and she started going to the windows and she started going to the $800 laptop and I told the guy I said, get her two laptops.

And then I said, man, I buy, you don't have to do that.

I said, yes, I have to do it because you remind me of me and my mom.

I remember my mom going in, putting all my stuff on layaway.

And then scrounging, getting change, trying to, you know, not even big bills, trying to pay $100 here, $50 there.

So, you know, if I could just help, help a person out and make them smile, that's what it's all about for me.

I, I'd rather do stuff and not get the credit for it, but when I do get the credit, I love, uh, getting a text from my mom.

I hope you know that.

As a watcher, when we see those TikToks and things, you make all of us smile too, so I just wanted you to be appreciated for that.

Thank you, because that really means Irving.

Everybody says when I used to work with the Knicks, they used to make us take pictures together and all of that.

That's, that's been the thing for sure.