Former Los Angeles Lakers star Shaquille O’Neal talked about his career with the team in his book Shaq Uncut: My Story, and the latest released excerpt centers around his departure from Los Angeles. O’Neal essentially blames Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak for not keeping him on the team.
Los Angeles Times’ Mark Medina fills us in with the controversial passage:
“That was it. That was the end of me in a Lakers uniform. Mitch broke our agreement. How could I trust him again?” Shaq writes in the book. “For months, I kept waiting for Mitch to come to me and say, ‘Shaq, you’re getting older, we need some new players. Mr. Buss doesn’t want to pay you and Kobe doesn’t want you here.’ But that conversation never happened. So that was when I demanded a trade. I couldn’t trust Mitch anymore and it was clear Kobe was now the one with all the power.”
Although O’Neal clearly puts the blame on Kupchak, at the end of the day it was Jerry Buss’ decision to go with Kobe. All Kupchak did was follow his boss’ orders, so it is quite unfair of O’Neal saying this about the general manager.
O’Neal has been causing quite a stir with the release of this biography, and anyone who knows Shaq knows that that isn’t too much of a surprise. O’Neal also called out former Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant in the book as well.
