By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Shaquille O’Neal praised Goran Dragic’s mental toughness by saying that the Miami Heat guard was the only player ever to endure his hazing, apart from the late Kobe Bryant.
“Before I talk about Goran I have a confession. There’s only two players to ever withstand my hazing, and I had to release what I was doing to them because of their toughness: Kobe Bryant and Goran Dragic,” O’Neal said on TNT’s Inside the NBA during the halftime of Game 3 between the Miami Heat and the Indiana Pacers. Dragic had 18 points at the break and went on to finish with 24 points plus a team-high six assists and three steals to help the Heat take a 3-0 lead in the series.
Shaq became Dragic’s teammate on the Phoenix Suns when he was traded to the team by the Heat in February 2008. The Slovenian player was then a couple of months in his rookie NBA season.
In a recent podcast with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Dragic revealed that part of Shaq’s hazing process was to make him carry his keyboard in road games. When Dragic asked him if he actually ever played the instrument, Shaq replied that he doesn’t because it’s broken.
“I know this kid is tough. I was hazing him one day and he said: ‘Shaq, I’m from Slovenia, I’ve seen it all before.’ So I realized he was a tough kid,” Shaq said. “And, getting hazed by me and working out with Steve Nash all day, every day, two-three times a day, this is what you get. So I know his kid has heart. I would never say anything bad about this kid. But I just like the way he’s playing.”
Dragic has been having a standout postseason so far, averaging 22.7 points (shooting 47.8 on 3-pointers), a team-high 5.7 assists and 3.7 rebounds over 34.0 minutes.
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