Shaq doesn't entirely believe what he's saying. Shaq is saying that players matter far more than coaches which to a certain extent I agree with, especially at the NBA level. At the same time it's a coach's job to get the best out of their players that can possibly be attained... it just so happens that Shaq had his greatest success under two coaches that value preparation more than anything else, so when they were in the game they only had to empower their players to do the things those players already knew they had to do because of all of the work that those coaches had done with those players before games. So Shaq's experience was that when he failed in his career it was due to lack of execution, which is probably a fair assessment. So I get where he's coming from in regards to him and still think he is both outright lying and when he is getting at what he does believe he's skirting the truth. The truth is that coaching does matter because there are teams that have the potential to win championships and never do because the coach misuses the players. There are also times when the game is on the line and adjustments need to be made that the players are to close to for them to see and the coach has to help them see the adjustments that have to be made. There are coaches that can draw up a play that will work that other coaches either aren't creative enough to draw up or don't know when to draw it up. Those plays can win games that win series. Shaq doesn't think a coach can derail a series or game by themselves and that the players always deserve the blame or that's what he's fucking saying he thinks but when the team is not achieving to their potential, especially when they've already shown that potential, it's the coach's responsibility to get them back on track. That doesn't mean a coach always can but it does mean they bear some of the responsibility. In the case of a coach that has fucked up as many times as Doc Rivers has... of course he is an obvious common denominator in situations with under performing teams and teams that win big in the regular season but can't in the playoffs and unlike Mike D'Antoni who just has a system that works well in the regular season but doesn't translate to seven game series success, Doc just chokes and he doesn't instill confidence in guys when things start going wrong that they can turn them back around and start getting them going in the right direction again. Doc is extremely negative and it just doesn't work when the going gets tough. He berates instead of inspiring.
The team with the most talent that plays together typically wins. Regardless of the coach. When Shaq played the right way his team would always win.
