Shaquille O’Neal is no stranger to having a lot of eyes on him, both literally and figuratively. For Indiana Fever star Kelsey Mitchell, it’s been an adjustment.
During Fever’s end-of-season press conference on Saturday, Mitchell said that with the attention Caitlin Clark is attracting, she and her teammates receive a lot of criticism because they are on the same team as Clark. O’Neal, having played in markets big and small alongside superstars like Kobe Bryant throughout his career and having faced criticism from fans, said Mitchell should take advantage of the attention.
“My advice is to take advantage of all the eyes that are out there. If the eyes are on a person and you’re next to that person, take advantage of them,” O’Neal told OutKick in a recent interview.
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Kelsey Mitchell #0 of the Indiana Fever drives to the basket against the Minnesota Lynx on August 2, 2026, at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (NBAE via Getty Images)
O’Neal reflected on his journey and the different markets he has played in throughout his illustrious career.
“(I went to) a small high school, always being the No. 1 player in the country, starting in a small market, eventually going to a big market, then coming back to a small market and winning another championship,” O’Neal said.
Mitchell is a free agent at the end of the season and will be in high demand, as the 30-year-old has been an All-Star in each of the last four seasons and averaged a career-high 24.7 points per game this year. While Mitchell praised the organization, her comments sparked speculation about whether she might leave the franchise with which she spent the first nine seasons of her career.
O’Neal called Mitchell a “beautiful young lady and a fabulous young lady” and said he didn’t want to talk about her or her to avoid violating the athlete code, but he said he would advise her to stay in Clark’s orbit.
“I wish him luck, but my advice, if you’re playing next to someone who has eyes that can give you extra income, make sure you always stay next to that person,” O’Neal said.
Mitchell will enter free agency at the end of January, when the Fever will anxiously await his decision.
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Shaquille O’Neal meets fans at the CCC store in Manufaktura shopping center in Lodz, Poland on October 3, 2026. (Marcin Golba/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Importance of an athlete’s brand
No athlete, current or former, stands out better than O’Neal. The Basketball Hall of Famer wanted to make sure he surrounded himself with the right people early in his career.
“I would say the first thing you do is surround yourself with people smarter than you,” O’Neal said. “Fifty-two percent of all professional athletes went down and didn’t play anything, so we maximized my potential. You know, I learned a lot, I did a lot, I dreamed a lot, I created a lot. I think in 1992, the way he marketed me and the way I marketed myself, a lot of athletes still follow that today.”
O’Neal’s celebrity brand manager, Leonard Armato, told OutKick that the epitome of a successful brand as an athlete is not only promoting yourself, but also making good business decisions. These days, Armato said athletes can be their own media company.
With the birth of social media during O’Neal’s career, Armato said the four-time NBA champion was an early adopter of social media and that technology could amplify an athlete’s abilities. For O’Neal, it was essential that whatever he did, he remained true to himself.
“But you always have to be true to yourself. You know, we went the first time with Leonard, we had a meeting with the image consultancy and they were trying to create a different image and he stopped the guy in the meeting. He said, ‘I know you’re an expert. I respect you for what you have to do, but image is reality.’ So you definitely have to stay true to yourself,” O’Neal said.
“A lot of people form characters that they can’t match. So, me for example, I am who I am. You know, my image is all about fun. I would love to be known as the ambassador of fun.”
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Kelsey Mitchell’s WNBA salary went from less than $60,000 to $1.4 million, but her press conference focused on the consequences of playing with Caitlin Clark. (Getty Images)
Although O’Neal’s brand is strong, he said he has made many mistakes. After making these mistakes, he leaned on his core values and stayed true to himself.
“Every time I fail, I try to memorize what I did wrong and just create a new program. But I don’t like to say ‘You do this, you do this, you do that to each (mistake)’, but if you follow some core values. To build relationships, you have to stay true to yourself and learn from your failures and you have to do things right and consistently, you could create a brand that will be known well beyond your playing years and you could be there forever,” O’Neal said.
Armato said one of the biggest mistakes athletes make is surrounding themselves with the wrong people. Armato released a book in November called “MAXIMIZE,” which details how to build and manage an athlete’s brand. O’Neal wrote the foreword for the book.
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