Pistons ‘boring’? Shaquille O’Neal’s ignorance preventing him from enjoying Detroit’s storybook season

Shaq knows nothing about the Pistons but won’t let get in his way of proclaiming them ‘boring’

Of the many nicknames bestowed on all-time great big man Shaquille O’Neal is “The Big Aristotle.” While that might fit his NBA playing days, a better nickname for him as an NBA talking head would be “The Big Ignoramous.”

O’Neal, prolifically and seemingly proudly, has zero idea what he’s talking about on a nightly basis. It’s a disservice to the game, its players, and its fans.

Recently, he was caught on his home broadcast, Inside the NBA, repeatedly thinking that Chauncey Billups was the head coach of the Detroit Pistons . He also recently dismissed the Pistons as a “boring” team while also insisting they were four games under .500 when they were six games over .500.

It’s not 100% Shaq’s fault. You can’t know anything about a team you never watch play. That is surely where the boring label comes from because if Shaq or his TNT team of enablers ever bothered to pay attention to the Pistons, they’d see them as one of the best stories in the NBA this year and one of the most fun teams to watch on a nightly basis.

But nothing is expected of Shaq, Kenny, or Charles except to yuk it up and get bonus points for knowing less and talking little about the actual game they cover. They have learned all the wrong lessons from what made Inside the NBA a hit.

It was a place to hear smart people talk about the game and be willing to break the format instead of being a rigid and scripted highlights show. Now, though, that freeform presentation has turned into dogma, and they think the people come to the show for them instead of to learn about the game from them.

It’s why the NBA All-Star game can be completely derailed by a tribute to a broadcast team that isn’t actually going anywhere (whether we like it or not).

If Shaq had actually watched any of the Pistons this year, he’d a see one of the great turnaround stories in years. One season removed from a record-breaking losing streak to a team fighting for a fourth seed.

He’d see Cade Cunningham starting to fulfill his potential as a No. 1 overall pick and one of the most promising offensive hubs in the NBA. The Pistons are a team in the top 5 in points off of turnovers, leading the league in percentage of points off the fastbreak points, and are sixth in points in the paint.

They don’t play a boring game. They score in a multitude of ways, including a mix of focus on rim gravity, three-point spacing, and old-school mid-range soul-snatching stepbacks. They are not just spending the entire game walking down the floor in isos or launching an endless barrage of threes.

Dare I say, they play a game Shaq might even respect if he ever bothered to watch.

Detroit ranks just 21st in field goal frequency but 13th in conversions. They take and make good shots, especially if you consider the sizeable offensive talent gap they are playing with compared to teams with multiple star players.

The fact that the Pistons can go from bottom five in both offense and defense to a top-10 offense and top-3 defense since Dec. 21 is an amazing story. If Shaq had bothered to pay attention.

He could be enjoying Isaiah Stewart’s old-school defense, Jalen Duren’s ability to convert lobs from any angle, or Malik Beasley having a Steph Curry-like season from behind the 3-point line.

Perhaps if Mr. O’Neal bothered to actually watch some extra basketball in his free time, he’d see that there is no more exciting play in the NBA than Ausar Thompson defense that leads to Pistons offense. For example:

And another:

But Shaq doesn’t know any of this because he doesn’t want to know any of this. He’d rather fall on something he heard from someone else years ago that he vaguely recalls but gets all the facts wrong when he tries to pass it off as his own analysis.

These aren’t the Detroit Pistons of the past 15 years, Shaq. Maybe it’s time you brush up on one of the league’s best stories and most entertaining watches this season.