from WBUR's latest On Point podcast episode: https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2025/05/29/steph-curry-moreyball-nba-3-point

features D'Antoni and Kirk Goldsberry as guests

D'ANTONI: It started, excuse me, earlier in my career and I thought in Europe when I was coaching in Europe, that's the best way to play and was working.

Obviously then you come to the NBA, you have better players to do what I always thought that needed to be done. But again, a big driving force was Shaquille O'Neal was the center in Los Angeles, which is in our division.

And we always said among ourselves, you can't out Shaq Shaq. You can't just trot somebody out there and think you're gonna get the best of Shaq.

So we had to figure out a way to beat him. And that was to speed the game up, take more 3s and spread them out, and then they give us a chance to win.

CHAKRABARTI: That's so interesting. I had no idea that Shaq was that influential in shaping the way other teams played.

D'ANTONI: Yeah. He is actually the cause of the 3-point shot.

CHAKRABARTI: (LAUGHS) So now we have someone to point the finger to. Okay.

D'ANTONI: Exactly.

GOLDSBERRY: Shaq is as old as the sport. The game itself before the 3-point line was simply dominated by which team had the best athlete in the middle of the floor. Whether that was George Mikan or Wilt Chamberlain, or Bill Russell, Shaq was just a logical continuation of that and frankly, one of the more dominant versions in the early 2000s. When Mike is trying to figure out a way to compete in the Western Conference, Shaq was by far the most dominant force in the NBA.

And so the idea that jump shooting could win NBA championships was a crazy thought in the early 2000s, you can't go out there and just shoot jumpers and take out a Shaq type presence. So the NBA ran through the middle and I think what's happened here in the 2020s is it's running from the suburbs now and because of offenses that have been designed by Mike and the Indiana Pacers really epitomized this playing base, playing wide open, spreading the four with shooters.

The Pacers center is not Shaq, he's Miles Turner who went to the University of Texas where I'm sitting right now, and he shoots the 3 ball very well. If you would've told NBA coaches in 2001 or '02, that their center could be firing 40% from 3, from 25 feet away. They would've told you, that's crazy.

41 comments

  1. Mike D’Antoni is the one who revolutionized baseketball with 3s, not Steph Curry

  2. yeah, teams weren’t sweeping Shaq multiple times before the three point revolution…

  5. Maybe I’m missing something but the SSOL Suns didn’t happen until 2004-05 and Shaq was out of the Pacific Division by then. D’Antoni got the Suns job a season earlier when Shaq was still on the Lakers but the Suns were a lottery team. Hard to believe that trying to figure out how to get past Shaq was a major concern for a team that didn’t win 30 games.

  11. I think Mike did revolutionize basketball on the offensive end but its more a pace or run and gun offense and how he spread the floor that teams use.

    He just never knew how to coach or weave actual defense into his scheme.

    But no the game full stopped changed after Curry just the belief to allow role players to shot the 3 at the rates/volume now would get you killed in the past if you had ONE bad night lol look at Kerrs attempts a game and thats just normal now.

  16. Eh, nothing new about “big man dominates so we should shoot from outside”.

    The entire reason the 3-point shot even exists is because **George Mikan** dominated his era – then advocated for a way to let “little guys” contribute.

  18. Given that the year over year increase in 3 point attempts began in the mid-80s (and has never stopped) before Shaq was even in the league

    AND

    That Shaq was already in Miami when MDA coached the Suns

    I call this concept bullshit.

  20. This is a really fascinating sideways take at NBA history that is pretty thought provoking, don’t know why everyone is shitting on it out of hand

  21. I like how peeps are saying Steph was the catalyst like Klay wasn’t lighting it up too, then defending Stephs counter part on top of that.

    Gotta give Klay his props cause Steph wouldn’t have been as effective with out prime Klay.

  22. Lol it was Rudy T who first truly embraced the 3pt shot to create space for Olajuwon to operate. The spread 4 was Horry and that’s a fact. 

  23. “Speed up the game” is what Bill Russell once said would be his strategy to stop Shaq. 

  24. so youre saying…. shaq…. is the reason every public basketball court has middle schoolers pulling up from half?

  25. Oh for fuck sakes Mike! Don’t give him MORE shit to gloat about!

    Now we’ll never hear the end of it!

  29. Shaq’s impact on the game was seriously insane. At one point every team had at least two 7 footers that had no business being in the league for the simple purpose of being 6 fouls to take against Shaq. I feel like he was the main reason they changed illegal defense into defensive 3 in the key and they allowed hand checking for a few years. Teams sped up and shot more 3s cause you couldn’t beat Shaq with just 2s.

    I think there’s an argument for Shaq being top 5 when you consider how much the entire league reacted to his presence for a number of years. That’s another kind of dominance imo.

  30. I really thought that Bargnani was going to be the real revolution in the NBA of a big with real 3 point range to stretch out the bigs who were useless in space.

  32. “We always said among ourselves, you can’t out Kelvin Kelvin…so we had to figure out a way to beat him. And that was to spread the food out, make more food and spread it out, and then that gives us a chance to catch our breath…He is actually the cause of the all-you-can-eat buffets.”

  33. Some historical centers have been good jump shooters, Ewing and Laimbeer come to mind. But usually offenses stuck them down at low or high post.

  34. To all you nephews, Shaq had already been shipped off to the Heat by the time the Suns really figured it out.

    Shaquille O’Neal was in the East and a team in the West was more worried about him than anything else. Scratch the most dominant big man title, Shaq is the most dominant player in the history of the NBA.

  35. I know this is more of a Shaq appreciation post, but Mike D is also an absolute gem of a basketball mind leading some of the most innovative and distinctive teams in the last 25+ years. When a coach is hired for a team, a fanbase doesn’t always resonate or know specifically what the plan will be. When Mike D gets hired, everyone knows his style and ability to add unique approaches for absolutely amazing offensive oriented basketball with spacing, pacing, and placing of players in their most prefered and optimal positions.

  37. Crazy fun fact. In the 2001-2002 NBA season, Dirk Nowitzki played center and averaged 40% from three.

  38. Curry’s 3 is different than the normal 3 no? Just doing 3 pointers is not what Curry got known for

  39. Shaq might have an ego as big as he is but theres no doubt that hes one of the greatest. Even if you look last night how Indiana did the hack a Shaq against Robinson so succesfully. Another strategy strictly originated for him. But the funny thing is it didnt work against Shaq himself. The guy somehow always hit his free throws when it counted. He was an absolute monster in the playoffs during his Laker years.

  41. Whole bunch of Redditors thinking they know more about the sport than Mike fucking D’Antoni

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