I was too young to have watch Shaq through his youth and his prime but I was hoping someone who was able to follow his career closely could answer this question: Did Shaq do himself and his career a disservice by bulking up so much after he left Orlando Magic?
When I see highlights of Magic Shaq he is so mobile, especially defensively, but when he gets to L.A he becomes almost a bodybuilder. Obviously someone has advised him to do this, but it makes me wonder if his career was cut short because of this change. Being that heavy would have taken a huge toll on his body and obviously his body began to break down during this period and by his early 30's he was never the same player.
I recall a former teammate saying that Phil Jackson wanted Shaq with more weight because of the physical approach the opposition took on Shaq, but for me this approach reminds me of the neighbour escalation theory. The theory is if someone is feuding with a neighbour, when you bring out a weapon like a baseball bat, your neighbour will go out and buy a knife, you'll respond with a bigger knife or a gun, then he gets an semi-automatic gun ect. My point being that by making Shaq so physically huge, other teams had to counter by getting their centres to bulk up too and get them to behave even more dirtier then before.
Does anyone have good memory of Shaq's career and thoughts on this theory?
