After 19 years of playing basketball, Shaquille O’Neal is finally choosing to retire. A lot of folks thought he would retire a couple of years ago. And this year, people thought that the Boston Celtics would make it to the championship, if not win the altogether. But there was no final championship won by Shaq. In fact, he was hardly in the PlayOffs due to an injury.
At age 39, Shaq made his retirement official in a video that was posted on Twitter.
“Never thought this day would come,” O’Neal said. “Father Time has finally caught up with Shaquille O’Neal.”
The video was posted on Wednesday, confirming the speculations that had been thrown around over the past couple of weeks. Of course, his goodbye video could have been short, but he decided to thank everyone, including his father who disciplined him and his mother who used to sneak him cake, milk and cookies. He has six children who had made an apology to because of his schedule demands that’s kept him away. He also thanked his brothers and sisters, David Stern, the camaraderie in the locker room and the six teams he’s played on throughout his career.
“And I’m really going to miss the free throws,” deadpanned O’Neal, a notoriously bad foul-shooter.
He went as far to even say that he isn’t even going to come back to coach anyone, but he will coach his three sons. His career has left him with 28,596 points, 13,099 rebounds, four championships, 15 All-Star selections and three NBA finals MVP awards.