“Hype it up!!” That was Shaquille O’Neal from decades back, claiming the Christmas game in LA to become the most televised in history. We also remember the time when he called out Sacramento “Queens”. And today, his quotes are still living up to that hype. We see why! He has a way of being The Head Honcho when it comes to debates. For EssentiallySports, it was not him, but his celebrated former agent Leonard Armato, who sat down with our NBA primetime correspondent, and Bay Area native, Vishal Kolar, to provide intriguing excerpts. It is in this interview that Mr. Armato debunked the assumptions about Shaq’s viral remarks about Nikola Jokic’s MVP win.

When you think athletic brandmaker, you think Leonard Armato.

Once an unassuming sports agent, Armato brought a rookie DIESEL to the prolific world of the NBA. Over time, he gave him shelter during his Free Agency days, a bicycle, and the “Aristotle” philosophy that helped him become – Superman Shaq. Armato guided him to be a multifaceted entertainer beyond basketball.

After growing the Shaq Brand, Armato toned down their professional partnership, but very much stayed in Shaquille O’Neal‘s inner circle. Having known Shaq since he was the top prospect out of LSU, Armato has the know-how of how the giant’s brain works in mysterious ways. So when he raised curtains on Shaq 101 exclusively at EssentiallySports, we heard him reveal the true intentions behind O’Neal’s unorthodox comments about the Joker. Here are a few exclusive excerpts from the unrestricted conversation.

Vishal: “Shaq went pretty viral in the news when he was speaking to Nikola Jokic and he said he thought that SGA should be the MVP… Shaq has been accused multiple times [for] putting down big men. I am curious to get your thoughts on where these comments come from?”

Armato: “You have to understand the brilliance of Shaq. He does this very often to motivate people. It’s not just with big men, he has done this with other athletes before and chided them to perform at a high level. It’s sort of worked, I remember him did it with Donovan Mitchell, told him to step up his game if he wanted to be a true superstar. He would do it in order to motivate.”

So, while people call him a hater of big men, jealous and petty, and even wrong, Armato turned this narrative upside down and further built on explaining his understanding behind Shaquille O’Neal’s reasoning, to answer the last part of our question.

Vishal: “He has such a bubbly, happy-go-lucky personality, but it seems like with these big men there is always kind of petty comments and jabs in the media…”

Armato: “I will give you a great example with Nikola Jokic, he loves Jokic he called him the best in the league. He kind of acted as if Jokic wasn’t stepping up to the game that Jokic was capable of, being the best player in world and guess what happened, Jokic had just lost two games in a row. And what happened in the last two games? Jokic stepped up and all of a sudden the Nuggets, that people had all counted out, said they were dead they won two games in a row in the Timberwolves court and Jokic performed like an MVP like the best player in the world.”

Adding then about the whole ‘false’ story on David Robinson not signing an autograph for Shaq, Mr Armato then concluded by saying, “He enters into these battles with people, but he always ends with a blink in his eyes. He had a rap battle with Damian Lillard, they were like dissing each other. Then at the end they’re really good buddies. So Shaq knows just how far to push it… what it takes to motivate people.” 

So all this while, Shaq was just pretending that Jokic wasn’t stepping up to be deserving of the 3x MVP award. When the Conference semis began, the Nuggets were lacking that energy, that X factor that they were supposed to bring to the table. They were lagging behind by 0-2 against underdogs. Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns were sweeping them. But then Shaq’s comment came in. He suggested that Jokic might not be MVP material, rather Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is. And the tables turned around. Jokic performed to the best of his capabilities. He is taking his team ahead with his prowess, and the Nuggets are currently leading 3-2 after yesterday’s Game 5. The T-Wolves are on the brink of an ugly elimination coming this close to the Conference Finals. In fact, he even won 79 votes to become this season’s MVP.

A calculated move by Shaq to look like the bad guy? Very much so! But, in a way, you just have to “understand the brilliance of Shaq”. And we can’t deny any of it because this big man was our 2000 MVP with 121 of the 122 possible votes.

Shaq is okay being the bad guy

Shaquille O’Neal is probably more satisfied that Chuck’s guarantee of a Denver sweep fell through. He’s just that sinister of a marketer. Repeatedly on The Big Podcast, he’s flaunted his made-up G-14 classification for this exact reason. With three degrees in marketing and motivating executives, O’Neal claims even the most thoughtless comment at a player from him is intentional.

Even in a recent podcast episode, Shaq admitted the WWE inspired his offbeat tactics. Rookie Shaq was first heartbroken that all the rivalries on WWE were made up but ended up with a lightbulb moment. He initially made up rivalries to keep himself interested in the media. Then he picked fights with NBA players via TNT.

“A method to his madness,” Armato perfectly put it. He should know. He’s the prime witness.

That was all from this part of EssentiallySports’ conversation with a legendary name in the athlete representation business. Stay tuned for more such pieces!