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NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal was rather critical of his former teammate Steve Nash after the latter was dismissed as head coach of the Brooklyn Nets. With Shaq holding onto a grudge from his lost MVP award, he highlighted Nash's shortcomings as a coach.
Steve Nash saw a rather surprising end to his tenure as head coach with the Brooklyn Nets. While a series of losses earlier in the season tipped the scales towards firing Nash, the Nets faced more issues pertaining to their coaching spot.
After a drama-riddled time in franchise history, Nash found himself mutually agreeing with the organization to step down from the head coaching position.
Some coaches in the NBA, such as Steve Kerr, have stated that Nash was in a difficult position as a coach to succeed. However, Nash's former teammate Shaquille O'Neal was not of the same opinion.
Shaq claims to have missed out on two MVP awards because of Nash. This could be viewed as a joke, however, as the 4x NBA champion showed no remorse for his former teammate.
He spoke up about Nash's dismissal on The Big Podcast with Shaq.
(from 12:45-13:41):
"When you do anything in New York, eyes are on you. So he was in New York, that’s the first thing. The second thing is you got some great talent on your team, you’re expected to win. Last year was a difficult year because one of your superstars only played half a year.
"This year, you came in with all two-and-a-half superstars. Everybody was healthy, wasn’t no complaining. Yeah, I said what I said, two-and-a-half superstars and again, you’re still supposed to win. Two are dangerous.
"The two at one time were compared to Steph [Curry] and Klay [Thompson], but they just couldn’t get it done. But they 94-67 under Steve Nash, won a playoff round and KD (Kevin Durant) and Kyrie [Irving] only played 64 games together. But this year, everybody’s expecting big things out of them, and it’s just not working out."
While O'Neal did mention Nash's winning record as Nets head coach, he also mentioned how little his former teammate had achieved with the team.
Considering the talent at his disposal this season, Nash has done an underwhelming job with the team. While last season saw an unfortunate mix of drama and COVID-19-associated issues, Nash had fewer excuses this season to defend his case.
With a major change taking place in Brooklyn, the Nets have begun their search for a new head coach. As per recent reports, the Nets have appeared quite set to bring former Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka on board.
Shaquille O'Neal in support of Ime Udoka joining the Brooklyn Nets
News of the Brooklyn Nets potentially hiring Ime Udoka as their head coach was a welcome sight for Shaquille O'Neal. After a rather tumultuous period in franchise history, O'Neal expressed that Udoka could bring a winning culture back to Brooklyn.
Links between the Nets and Udoka garnered a lot of attention after Nash's dismissal. While some reports have also suggested that Brooklyn was in contact with Udoka before Nash was fired, the team hasn't confirmed Udoka's hire as of yet.
In this regard, Shaq had a rather positive opinion of Ime Udoka. Emphasizing that a streak of wins would put all the drama surrounding the team out of sight, O'Neal highlighted Udoka's role in getting the superstar trio to play together.
