Shaquille O’Neal, in full Shaquille Rashaun O’Neal, byname Shaq, (born March 6, 1972, Newark, New Jersey, U.S.), American basketball player, named in 1996 to the National Basketball Association (NBA) list of its 50 greatest players of all time.
As a high-school senior in San Antonio, Texas, O’Neal attracted the attention of college recruiters when his team won the state championship. He attended Louisiana State University (LSU), where he quickly established himself as one of the best players in the nation. He was named the consensus College Player of the Year in 1991. O’Neal left school and entered the NBA draft in 1992 and was taken with the first pick by the Orlando Magic. In 2000, however, he finished his studies and earned a degree from LSU.
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Named NBA Rookie of the Year in 1992–93, O’Neal led the Magic to a 41–41 record, 20 wins better than the previous season. Two years later he won the scoring title and led Orlando to the finals against the Houston Rockets. After Houston’s sweep of the Magic, O’Neal developed a reputation for losing big games. O’Neal’s great size and strength—he stood 7 feet 1 inch (2.16 metres) tall and weighed 315 pounds (143 kg)—made him virtually impossible to stop on the offensive end of the court. He was, however, a poor free-throw shooter, and opponents adopted a strategy (known as “Hack-a-Shaq”) of intentionally fouling him, knowing that he was less likely to make free throws than to score a field goal.
O’Neal was a member of the U.S. Olympic basketball team that won the gold medal in 1996, the same year he joined the Los Angeles Lakers, where he teamed with blossoming superstar Kobe Bryant. Although O’Neal continued to dominate on offense, his teams continued to disappoint in the play-offs. That changed in 1999–2000, when, under new Lakers coach Phil Jackson, he became the league’s Most Valuable Player (MVP). At Jackson’s urging, O’Neal became more of a team player, paying special attention to his defense, rebounding, and free-throw shooting. As a result, he led the Lakers to championships in 2001, 2002, and 2003, capturing the finals MVP award each year.
In 2004—after years of on-and-off feuding with Bryant, which had become a major distraction within the Lakers organization—O’Neal was traded to the Miami Heat. There he teamed with the talented young guard Dwyane Wade to lead Miami to an NBA championship in 2006. Injuries limited O’Neal’s production over the following seasons, and he was traded to the Phoenix Suns in February 2008. O’Neal’s playing style did not mix well with the Suns’ up-tempo game, and—despite having had a very solid 2008–09 season—he was dealt to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2009 as Phoenix began a rebuilding process. He signed with the Boston Celtics in 2010, but an Achilles tendon injury limited his play. O’Neal retired after the 2010–11 season. His career totals include 28,596 points (the seventh highest total in NBA history at the time of his retirement) and 15 All-Star Game selections. O’Neal was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016.
O’Neal had limited success as a rapper and as an actor, starring in such feature films as Blue Chips (1994), Kazaam (1996), and Steel (1997). He voiced himself in the computer-animated The LEGO Movie (2014). His gregarious personality and charm made him a popular pitchman throughout his career and helped him to become a commentator on an NBA television studio show after his retirement.
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This article was most recently revised and updated by Adam Augustyn.
What Teams Did Shaq Play for During His NBA Career?
For the most part all athletes, even the great ones, switch teams at one point or another in their career. Sometimes they get traded, sometimes they outgrow their city, and sometimes they just want to go somewhere new. Shaquille O’Neal experienced a little bit of everything.
The star center often gets associated with his time on the Lakers, but he had a ton of success across several different teams.
In total, Shaq played for six teams (Magic, Lakers, Heat, Suns, Cavaliers, and Celtics) during his 19 years in the NBA.
This guide will go into detail about each one by looking at why Shaq moved to each organization, as well as how he played once there.
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A Magic Start
Shaq, due to his size, weight, and impressive collegiate career, came into the league with a ton of hype. The Orlando Magic drafted him first overall in the 1992 draft, and he immediately became one of the best centers in the league. Seemingly no one could stop him.
However, while Shaq played well over the next four seasons, things shifted during the offseason in 1996. After joining up with the USA Olympic team, his relationship with the Magic’s front office began to sour. Once he became a free agent, it only got worse.
The still-young center faced a ton of pressure, and the Magic didn’t like his ask for a $120 million contract. Overwhelmed by the organization and its fans, Shaq began to look elsewhere. In just a few short weeks, he decided to switch teams and join up with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Purple and Gold
The flashy city was just what he needed. While the pressure was still on, joining up with Kobe Bryant gave him another star to work with and provided another person to absorb some of the spotlight. Not only that, but La La Land turned him into a winner as well.
Shaq’s most remembered for playing with the Lakers because his time with Kobe is one of the best runs in NBA history. The two played extremely well together. There, Shaq didn’t just get a single championship, he got three (2000, 20001, and 2002).
Shortly after, things went south. The big man got hurt, missing key time for the next two years, and then the Lakers lost to the Pistons in the 2004 Finals. The organization blamed Shaq for the loss, and it was once again time for him to seek greener pastures.
South Beach to the South West
Shaq went to the Heat in 2004 to join up with Dwyane Wade. He cut down his weight, worked out, and was back to true form in just a few months. Fully rejuvenated and with a new roster, he earned his fourth ring with the organization in 2006.
As with his previous Finals win, he followed the victory season with surgery. His knee sidelined him for a good amount of time, and he began to get in arguments with the Heat organization. His temper got the best of him yet again, and they traded him to the Suns in 2008.
While Shaq did a decent job in Phoenix, he was on the tail end of his career. He put up solid numbers, but couldn’t quite climb back to the player he used to be. After just two years, the team traded him to the Cavaliers. He spent one year there, and then went to the Celtics.
Discouraged by his slipping stats, he finally retired at the end of the season.He played for nineteen seasons in the NBA and was with a total of six teams.
Final Words
Shaq spent his golden years in LA, but he was a journeyman too. He had an incredible career and saw continued success despite playing for a range of organizations. He didn’t quite have it at the end, but he stuck around a long time. Most who do that, will go a few places in their time.
Out of the rules. Players-reformers of the NBA
Reviewer Sportbox.ru tells about the five great basketball players in the history of the National Basketball Association, who, with their uniqueness and phenomenality, forced the leadership of the league to change the rules of the game.
There are rules in every game, but this does not mean that they are the game itself. Rules are just a framework that changes over time. He sags under the influence of new technical achievements, the demands of the public or athletes whose physical data and personality are too non-standard, too large to be subject to laws. In such cases, the system yields pliantly, realizing that the value of such athletes, not only for the game, but also for history, is too significant to be neglected. Even now, the rules of basketball are changing, it's just not as noticeable today as when the game was just being structured, and that's when many of the laws that seem ordinary to us today evolved thanks to or in spite of these people.
George MACKAN
Position: Center
Activity: 1946-1956
Change in the Rules: Expansion of the three-second zone, the rules for the production of block-shots
may seem funny to someone, but in a league where the names of centers Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Hakim Olajuwon and Shaquille O'Neal are revered, by and large, it all started with a paper-white Illinois native.
"George Mikan started it all," Shak repeatedly pointed out the importance of Mikan. 208 cm height today does not seem like a sufficient reason why you can change the rules of basketball, but with his height, Maikan was so large (111 kg) and mobile that he reigned supreme inside the three-second zone. In order to somehow try to equalize the chances of his opponents, in 1951 the league expanded the limits of space near the ring.
But even this was not enough. In those days, the throwing technique was different, and many basketball players attacked the basket without a jump, actually from an inert state. It wasn't too difficult for Mikan to jump out and not just block shots, but actually take the ball out of the flight path. Therefore, the leadership of the NBA once again had to go to the trick and forbid touching the ball after it passed the highest point of its flight phase.
To say that this made it possible to reason with Maikan is only a bit of a stretch. George began to use other elements of his offensive arsenal more often, which allowed him to grow into a more versatile basketball player and go down in NBA history as the first dominant center.
Wilt Chamberlain
Position: center
Period of activity: 1959 – 1973
Rule changes: 3-second zone expansion, free kick rules
For his time, the Big Diver (nickname Wilt got because of his habit of bending down when entering doors) was an alien, for our time - half-human, half-myth. 100 points in one game, 55 rebounds in one game, with dimensions of 216 cm and 125 kg, he remained the best assistant in the league for a whole season.
It was created for the sport as such, it was cramped within the framework of any one kind. If Mikan is rightly called the dominant player in basketball, then Wilt can hardly be limited. At school, he was an excellent runner, an excellent swimmer, an outstanding track and field athlete, but in the end he chose basketball. Including because, according to Wilt, there is room for creativity in this game.
Quite possible for Wilt, but his rivals didn't have much room for both creativity and resistance, so in 1964 the league again had to expand the three-second zone. But this was not the most revolutionary change associated with the Chamberlain name. Since free kicks were never his forte, Wilt invented the following way of breaking: he stood on the line, threw the ball into the backboard, then took two steps, jumped out and, catching the rebounded ball in the air, stuck it into the ring. In other words, what is now a show-piece in an All-Star game or a dunk contest was for Chamberlain a regular gaming routine.
Naturally, with Wilt's size, the implementation of such free throws was one hundred percent, and therefore, in order to somehow rein in the broken record holder, the NBA introduced a rule according to which during the breaking of fouls it is impossible to cross the free throw line. This, of course, spoiled Chamberlain's statistics, but it entered the folklore of the NBA and became one of the numerous confirmations of the uniqueness of this basketball giant.
Darryl Dawkins
Position: Center
Period of activity: 1975 - 2000
Rule changes: change in the construction and materials of the basketball backboard
It's just that Daryl Dawkins, nicknamed Chocolate Thunder (which, incidentally, was given to him by the legendary singer Stevie Wonder), very much liked to hit from above. I loved it very much and very much. In the late 70s and early 80s, there wasn't a man in the NBA who - pardon the pun - had more broken shields than Dawkins.
The fans were squealing with delight, while Dawkins, meanwhile, got the hang of coming up with a name for almost every dunk: “Dr. . As for the "Splinter Rain", the bosses of the NBA were not too happy that after such tricks the basketball players complained of minor wounds, cuts, and the matches themselves had to be stopped due to the replacement of the shield. All this took too much time and money, so it was decided to equip the structure with more massive supports, and the shield surface itself was made of extra strong plexiglass.
Of course, Dawkins continued to multiply his dunks, but now if he shattered the shield, it crumbled into small, rounded pieces that created much less potential threat than before.
Shakil O'Neill
Position: Center
Activity: 1992 - 2011
Changes in the Rules: Rule of zone protection
Game of O'Nela still fresh in memory, so it is realistic to rethink its degree impact on basketball we all have yet to come over time. With all his accomplishments, antics and jumps, Shaq, meanwhile, is the only center since Wilt Chamberlain to have so dominated his opponents.
Starting from the mid-90s, when, as in the case of Dawkins, Shaq had to change the principles of installation and production of basketball backboards (he did not just break the backboards, the main posts of the entire structure were folded twice), and ending with the 2000s When O'Neal brought about the reformation of the zone defense rule, "Diesel" was the determining factor in many processes throughout the league.
Before Shaq was in the NBA, it was illegal to double-team against a basketball player who didn't have the ball. With the arrival of O'Neal, everything changed, he was too bulky and agile to be guarded by one person, Shaq playfully dealt with the poor fellow one on one and knocked the ball in from above.
As with its illustrious predecessors, the NBA is not left out. The league allowed zone defense, in which one player interfered directly with Shaq, and the second, standing in front of him, prevented the post from delivering the ball, in fact, they played two against one. Together with the simple method of "Hack a Shaq" - "Foul on Shaq", this gave some trump cards to the teams against which O'Neal played. But even under those conditions, he managed to pound the league's best centers for most of his career.
Mark Jackson
Position: playing
Activity: 1987 - 2004
Changes in the Rules : Rule 5 seconds Mark Jackson
Gabarits can play a decisive role, even if you nominally represent the lowest caste basketball players. Point guard Mark Jackson did not really stand out with his 185 centimeters against the backdrop of the maturing and growing NBA of the 90s, but what he had he used quite skillfully and sometimes so often that his tricks forced the NBA to once again impose restrictions.
Against point guards who were smaller than him, Jackson used the following simple technique: he simply stood with his back to them and began to push in the manner of a real center. When the time for possession was slowly coming to an end, and Jackson was pushing his opponent almost close to the ring, the rivals assigned the second basketball player to Mark's guardianship, and he, in turn, quite reasonably passed to a free player.
Everything ingenious is simple. But at the same time, such efficiency was accompanied by a decrease in the pace of the game. The dull pushing of the poor fellow who was obviously inferior in mass could last up to 15 seconds, and this is clearly not what the audience wants to look at. So the NBA imposed another veto: a point guard who dribbles with his back to his defender cannot force him for more than 5 seconds, otherwise the ball will be given to the opposing team.
It is not known how Mark himself reacted to this decision, but this did not affect the number of his assists in any way. He is the fourth-best assist in NBA history with 10,334 assists, ahead of such established masters of the genre as Magic Johnson, Isaiah Thomas and Gary Payton.
Shaquille O'Neal was a real monster. But stop calling him "the most dominant center in history" - Lantern - Blogs
Revealed.
Shaquille O'Neal is known as "the most dominant player in NBA history. " Do you know who came up with this cliche? That's right, Shaquille O'Neal himself.
He didn't really have to convince anyone. Everyone believed it.
Believed because Shaq is one of the best politicians in the history of the league. It was he who for a very long time was in the lead in millions earned in the NBA. It was he who almost magically disposed of partners, rivals, journalists, fans and created the ideal image of a basketball player - a smiling giant with a 56th shoe size, who fell in love with a baby at first sight. It was he who managed to present all his pranks, even frank zashkvaras like the strangulation of Girichek, in such a light that they seemed like childish pranks and only strengthened his positive image.
LeBron James' manipulations are on display. Kobe's reputational break - from universally hated defendant to bearer of supreme wisdom - is too radical to fool anyone. Magic's smile fascinated everyone, but there was no trick to it. And Charles Barkley was the prototype of Trump - a bully and a rude person who seemed sincere against the background of the rest, this is the worst rating of all.
Shaq, on the other hand, put on a clown mask at school and quite naturally carried it throughout his career.
He never gave himself away.
Not when I fired my coach the first year.
Not when he had a fight with Ostertag, without even leaving the court.
Not when he had a fight with Scott Skiles.
Not when he refused to listen to any non-top 4 coach in history.
Not when he moved to Los Angeles and signed a record contract. And he said he "just wants to play basketball, wear Reebok, drink Pepsi."
Not when I came up with endless explanations for various sweeps.
Not when he fought with Kobe.
Not when he attacked David Robinson for 10 years.
Not when he demanded a fat extension from Bass and provoked a trade from the Lakers.
Not when he said that "since he was injured during working hours, he will recover during working hours."
Not when he feigned injury and pushed the trade from the Heat.
Not once - not until the last second in the league, not until the joke-filled Hall of Fame induction speech, until the still-fiery broadcast on TNT.
Shaq was always humorous, always provoked comical situations, always attracted attention with dancing, a phone in a sneaker, a new nickname, dissing opponents, or even just a bare ass.
Charm turned him into one of the NBA icons long before he dominated the court. And it helped to destroy the ingrained, seemingly unshakable stereotype: the stereotype that everyone dislikes Goliath. A sincere smile, touching plumpness, a joke - albeit about someone's mother - are always ready, a willingness to laugh at oneself, a brilliant future - almost immediately captivated everyone. AT 96th, in the fourth year of his basketball career, he made the list of the 50 best players in NBA history, and this did not raise any special questions.
In the public mind, Shaq immediately became the best center.
That's why he was the best - he made me reconsider the very idea of a center, acted as the first giant I wanted to root for.
It's traditionally been difficult with centers in the NBA.
Wilt Chamberlain was hated. For narcissism, contempt for others, individual dominance and unbearable character.
Bill Russell was the main spokesman for black protest in the NBA.
Moses Malone didn't like to open his mouth.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar embodied all the sins at once - he said on the air about America that it was not his country, he was too smart and looked down on everyone, seemed closed and gloomy.
Bill Walton broke into the NBA as a hippie.
Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Hakim Olajuwon did not depart from the type of stern giants: they smiled little, talked even less often, never joked.
Shak, on the other hand, brought humor in the style of "American Pie" to the people, somewhere rude and often toilet, but, firstly, against such a gloomy background, it was perceived as a revelation, and, secondly, in those days "American pie” just dominated no less than the center one.
Shaq spent the best years in a Lakers jersey and embodied the versatility of the average Lakers player - recording rap albums, releasing video games, acting in movies, producing and becoming the main character of shows / series, appeared on boxing ring. It was said that he was breaking his ass to make the whole world fall in love with him, but it is still difficult to admit the idea that these efforts are aimed at increasing popularity: Shaq himself has always, from the first days in the league, appeared as a full-fledged Hollywood star - a bright, charismatic, attractive, collecting incredible stories and capturing the attention of fans and the media. His versatile interests never seemed something fake - he did what he was born for: enjoying life and entertaining the people.
The Clippers didn't give Shaq tickets for the whole party - Shaq tore them to shreds, scoring 61 points.
David Robinson did not give little Shaq an autograph - and he threatened him with a harsh bribe for half a career.
It was necessary to reach the NBA finals with only one goal - of course, to go to Las Vegas for a week with the whole team and hang out there properly.
The Lakers were slandered by the press for a relaxed regular season - Shaq missed practice or was late: at night he participated in police raids and searched for stolen cars.
The Heat got tired of Shaq's gouging and turned him down on Marion - Shaq told how Pat Riley almost personally followed every player, set up a police dictatorship in the club and drove fat off innocent people. And then, in person, he described the near-accidental assassination of the president as a 150-kilogram victim of the regime.
Incidents like this kept piling up and eventually turned Shaq's career into an endless amusement ride.
The illustration of O'Neill's absolute dominance in his championship finals crashed into the mass consciousness in exactly the same way.
38.0 points, 16.7 rebounds, 2.7 blocks, 39% from the line - in the final with Indiana.
33.0 points, 15.8 rebounds, 3.4 blocks, 51% from the line - in the final with Philadelphia.
36.3 points, 12.3 rebounds, 2.8 blocks, 66% from the line - in the final against New Jersey.
Shaq rode into the prime of his career so decisively that he produced playoff numbers during those years that would have honored any league legend. He remained in the memory of the battle with Dikembe Mutombo in 2001 - the best defenseman in the league that season and one of the best in the history of the NBA looked like another extra against the Lakers monster. He was pushed aside like a child, they fell through him with frightening ease, they simply did not notice him.
Shaq had an "S" on his shoulder. “Superman” is not even his usual boasting, this is the most capacious description of this phenomenon (as well as the “black tornado” for the crown spread).
Shaq was the basketball version of Superman.
216 centimeters tall, 150 kilograms of weight and the strength of a bear did not cause the slightest feeling of heaviness, and therefore looked doubly impressive. The center was exceptional not for his size, but for the fact that he dragged them with unconstrained ease, with smooth movements reminiscent of a cartoonish, unnaturally light, dancing hippopotamus (“a mixture of Terminator and Bambi deer,” his agent said), exploded with sharp turns to the right or left and managed to stick a leg, and behind it an ass for anyone - and with the power of such a lever it was possible to move the Earth. There has never been anything like it in the sport: Shaq was stronger, faster and bigger than any center.
They passed the ball to his mustache, and there he showed the best numbers in the history of basketball. To do this, he needed an unsightly half-hook from one and a half meters, constantly surprising footwork and monstrous arm strength: with the help of the first, he forced the opponent to come closer to him, with the help of the latter he scrolled around him, pushed him aside and took off with another vicious dunk. Only closer to 28 did he also have a throw with a deviation in his arsenal.
Without the ball, he also riveted attention to himself - by aggressively moving under the shield, laying down on the defender, squeezing him from the inside and taking the rebound. If someone dared to break away from Shaq and be distracted by his partner, then he usually regretted it - without control, without a point of support, not a single center could hold such a carcass on himself.
Shaq also possessed extraordinary intelligence for a "great" person. It is easy to level him to the level of a huge “wall of meat” (as Yao Ming called him), jumping on suffocators who were not prepared for this, but the passing game always remained very underestimated in his performance: Shak pulled two, three and passed, looking for options for throwing in the "back door", I saw open snipers.
Shaq showed unprecedented numbers in terms of productivity and efficiency for the post player, provoked armfuls of fouls (the most in history) and attracted the attention of two or three players. But Harden also collects numbers - Shaq in his landmark years created a feeling of unfair dominance towards opponents. And this feeling was even more multiplied due to the primitiveness of his game. Everyone understood what he would do, everyone understood that he had about two moves and one grimace in his arsenal, but the Lakers stupidly pushed the ball again and again, and the triangular attack made delivery so easy that sooner or later the trick happened: Shaq jumped on the shield again and again and again until there was no one else around.
From 1994 (the second season in the league) to 2006 (the fourteenth), Shaka's teams scored 654 wins with 298 losses. That's 68.7% - not far off the standard of dominance of 70.5% won by Bill Russell's Celtics (716 wins, 299 losses).
It might even seem that it was his super power that radically changed the league.
Shaq surpassed Darryl Dawkins' "Chocolate Thunder" shield crusher. Already in the debut season, he did not just pull out the rings, he immediately demolished the entire structure. The league caught on in time - modernized the devices with the help of new technologies and introduced a rule punishing intentional damage by removal, and the team - by a technical foul.
Shaq provoked the hack-e-Shaq tactic. O'Neal was so unstoppable under the backboard and so ridiculous in the free-kick area that Don Nelson, who first came up with the Rodman trick in '97, could not deny himself the pleasure of not putting a center on the line. The experimental coach was extremely pleased: somehow Shaq missed 11 of 14 free throws, tore off the TV in the locker room and smashed it in the shower, and also called the offender a “clown”. And the entire league adopted the technique.
Finally, Shaq himself announced that in 2001 the league lifted the ban on zone defense specifically to prevent him from dominating further. After that, the opponents got freedom when moving in defense and could help much more against the “big”.
The lifting of the zone defense ban naturally brought about deeper changes as well, as it opened up attacking space for nimble defenders. Teams that were comparable in talent to the Lakers but couldn't contain Shaq at all — Dallas, Sacramento, and then Phoenix — began experimenting with speed. Mad Professor Nelson showed how it's done, Divac and Chris Webber explained how important the "big" players can be, playing far from the backboard, and Mike D'Antoni brought it all to absurd brilliance in 7 seconds or less. Then there were the Beatles, Boris's Spurs, Golden State, and voila - frightened by the giant, the entire NBA flew in all directions, with three-pointers, mixed up positions and street basketball.
That's how Shaq is remembered, who started doing his own PR, barely getting into the NBA, and over the years he became even better at it. Periodically, he fantasizes about how he would tear everyone apart in modern basketball.
Again, Shaq is a brilliant marketer.
True, if you get a little out from under the shakobaia that stretches across the ocean, problems begin.
And behind the problems is a slightly different picture.
As you might guess, the league didn't change the rules to annoy Shaq, no matter how much he wanted to. Changes in the game started from the end of 90's and were finally brought to mind in the mid-2000s. And they were connected with the fact that basketball became slow and ineffective, too protective, too individual, completely gone from collectivity and reduced to a flea market in a mustache. Moreover, the first reforms happened back in the mid-90s and had a beneficial effect on the subsequent dominance of the Lakers center. Then the league introduced a zone under the ring, in which fouls were not recorded in the attack - Shaq's rivals lost the opportunity to at least substitute, and he continued to sweep them left and right with even greater ferocity.
And that confrontation with Mutombo, in fact, is the peak of the controversy around the legality of everything that O'Neill did. It seemed unfair not only aesthetically, but actually with an eye to the rules. In the 90s, the center earned himself a reputation as one of the main whiners in the league, as he believed that half of the violations were not recorded on him. But at some point, there were growing screams from the other side: opponents began to accuse him of mud and show the referees that, first of all, Shaq pushes them away with his hands and elbows (which is prohibited) and lies down on them with his whole mass, but for now the referees are watching the ball on the perimeter, the subject who rejects the right wins a comfortable position for himself by all means. When Mutombo was demolished without options, all this latent discussion spilled over into the surface and acted as not the most adequate frame for the most dominant campaign in the playoffs at that time.
Yet the changes were directly related to Shaq. Only not with dominance, but with its attractiveness. The huge center looked solid, but did not contribute to the development of the game at all - firstly, such a phenomenon cannot be copied, it is impossible to imitate it, and secondly, only the stubbornness of the Lakers fans could argue with the predictability and simplicity of his game. No matter how much Shaq smiled, no matter how much he tried to get away from his gloomy brothers, no matter how much his media exposure, the NBA strove for the opposite in values of basketball - fast basketball of mobile players.
It is symbolic that the reforms were completed in 2005. The year Steve Nash snatched the MVP award from under his nose and O'Neal himself spent his final season as a superstar.
Another problem behind Mutombo's murder is that it makes it difficult to look at the other half.
Mutombo blundered not only because he was beaten with elbows. The best defense against Shaq has always been an attack - the giant never showed quickness in his own half and at first often ended games on the bench due to too many fouls. Shaq defended well one-on-one under the shield, but otherwise remained a problem: he was lost on the weak side, did not have time to insure, was vulnerable to the “big” pulling him to the perimeter.
Neither Mutombo, nor the retiring Rick Smits the year before, nor the big Nets or Kings, or even the Spurs, could work him the way 90s centers sometimes did. (with the same Smits, only healthy, Shaq often had problems). And it turned out that in an uncontested grandiose form, Shaq revealed himself exactly when his teachers went into the sunset.
In '99, Shaq accepted a coach for the first time in his career - he was so excited about the arrival of Jackson that he personally came to him in Montana immediately after signing. And then he also brought himself into the best shape. That season was remembered not only for the long-awaited unstoppable play of the center, which brought him the only MVP award, but also for the fact that the Lakers presented the best defense in the league - this achievement should not be underestimated, since Shaquille's teams have always been at their best in terms of defensive performance. at the end of the top ten.
Dominance is not only an attack, but it so happened that Shaq was dominant in both halves only during one of his MVP seasons and even a little in the Heat (where Wade had already taken the first option in attack from him).
But these few years have been sandwiched between seasons ending in disappointment.
In the best years, from 1995 to 2006, six playoff series ended with either a run or a gentleman's run. Especially strange when you consider that Shaq has always had very high-quality, and sometimes even stellar teams.
In '95, the Magic with a healthy Penny Hardaway and Horace Grant scored 57 wins and made it to the final. The confrontation came down to an individual duel of centers, in which the experienced and more technically equipped Hakim Olajuwon looked a little stronger than Shaq in every match. It did not look fatal - Shaq was only 22 years old.
In '96, Orlando (60 wins) went to Chicago, which was 72-10, but legendary figures like Luke Longley and Bill Wennington were on duty under the basket. Tiny Dennis Rodman defended in places against Shaq, he also dominated the boards, Grant was out with an injury. The big guy played at his level, but fouled a lot, disappeared at key stretches and left Penny to deal with everything, he could not stand the shootout with Jordan. It still didn't look deadly—only 23 years old.
Shaq changed coast. In '97 and '98, the Lakers became the West's favorite with 57 and 61 wins, 4 All-Stars, Jazz clearances throughout the season. But this did not affect the relationship with Utah in any way: Greg Ostertag somehow shoved and received help from the others, and Malone, Stockton and Hornasek successfully dismantled the Lakers defense, either pulling Shaq out of three seconds or getting through him. The Californians declared everyone guilty except the superstar - they kicked Van Exel and Elden Campbell out into the cold, then Del Harris, then Eddie Jones, they tried Dennis Rodman (he was fired after he came drunk to training). But just failed again at 99th - three different coaches during the shortened season, Shaq, who turned into a ball during the lockout, and was eliminated 0-4 by the Spurs in the second round.
In 2004, everything ended unequivocally again - 1-4 from the then unknown and incomprehensible Pistons, where Shaq was opposed by a guy two heads shorter. The center, as usual, slowly entered the season, did not get in shape and did not have time to go anywhere at all - he gave one assist in the entire series, was slow and heavy, did not cut off, did not rebound, and did not adapt to Ben Wallace's flops.
It’s hard to blame O’Neill for any of these streaks individually (he always scored his own with a high percentage, and his partners didn’t help or harmed at all, like Kobe in 2004), but all together they are symptomatic: unwillingness to strain in his own half and the limitations that did not allow him to receive the ball more often made life difficult for the rest. For each weak-willed spanking, the retinue was always responsible, no matter how cool it was, but all together they do not go well with the declared dominance.
Most striking, however, is the 2000 Blazers series, a stunning moment that best proves how much luck is in sports.
This seems to be Shaq's best, most dominant year, but Portland's defense with Sabonis, Wallace and Pippen managed to hold the giant back. The Blazers endured until the seventh game and led "+15" in the fourth quarter. Shaq scored twice for the third.
In his latest book, Phil Jackson wrote: The Blazers were killing us in deuces with Stoudemire and Smith. Shaq was on the verge of sinking into a quagmire of hopelessness that predetermines defeat, as he had in the past."
The Blazers didn't have to lose to themselves (and a bit to the judges). And then all the jambs that Shaq so diligently denied before would surface again - problems with leadership qualities, laziness in defense, unwillingness to run, inability to do what you personally do not like, although the team needs it. And then Shakoba (and his legacy) would have been looked at differently by the Lakers - in the next season, Bryant was already actively claiming the place of the first.
And here Shaq accomplished his main feat.
First of all, I got out of my comfort zone and started to resist the little ones more aggressively, to belay more actively, to show more desire in the field.
Secondly, he allowed the Lakers to win without him - the team switched to the perimeter and long-range shots, since all attempts to find a center ended in losses.
These two points seem self-evident. But not for Shaq – Rick Fox described him perfectly: “Kobe was furious about Shaq. Even in the most crucial moments, Shaq needed to have fun and enjoy himself. If he wasn't having fun, then he didn't want to be there."
95% of the lyrics about O'Neal come down to the fact that he would have a chance to outshine Jordan, if not for all the variety of his hobbies. But it’s not about hobbies at all: Jordan himself was fond of smoking cigars, starred in a film and advertised everything, spent more time on golf courses than Shaq did for any other leisure.
Shaq's story is some stupid fable about an ant and a dragonfly.
He was ready to win only on his own terms. And if they were slightly different, then he did not hesitate to fly dry.
He could dominate both halves. But for this it was necessary to follow the form - the correlation between defense and condition is obvious even without advanced statistics.
He could do his best in basketball. But for this, it was necessary to move the ego and work in the interests of the team, to accept at least some other coaches besides Jackson and Riley, and not "confront everyone who tries to tell him that he is wrong in any way."
The last quote is from Tex Winter, who spoke extensively about Shaq at the Lakers, the "moody, unpredictable, self-absorbed" leader nicknamed "Big Caprice." Phil Jackson's assistant always stood on the side of Kobe in a conflict with O'Neal and painted the ultimatums that the center stamped out: he did not like to set up screens and generally help the attack otherwise than by scoring points, and at some point he almost declared that if it is not the first option in the attack, then it will completely forget about defense.
Classic story from Phil Jackson's latest book:
“It happened during the 2003 playoffs against San Antonio. Shaq lost his temper after Dewayne George made a mistake in the end and let Malik Rose pick up the offensive rebound and hit the game-winning shot. Shaq rushed around the locker room to deal with George, but he was stopped by Brian Shaw.
Shaw had a reputation on the team for always telling the truth. He felt the relationship in the team well, and I always encouraged him to speak out.
When Shaw saw that Shaq was running after George, he said: “If you used this energy to cut off opponents, then you would take the rebound yourself, and we would most likely win. So why don't you take responsibility instead of taking your anger out on someone else." Shaq forgot about George and lashed out at Shaw. He tried to knock him down, but ended up with Shaq dragging him around the locker room until his knees bled and the other players fought him off.
“Shaq got mad because I hurt his feelings,” Shaw said later. “But a few days later he came up to me: “You know, you were right. That was my fault. I shouldn't have done that."
Therefore, his main feat in his career is something completely ordinary.
And now the most important thing.
The problem is that Shaq himself always understood that he never reached the status of “most dominant” in the game. And this finally washes away all the glossy coating of smiles and jokes, boasting and complacency.
Watching Shaq's non-alternative departures (and in general "sweeps" - a rare occurrence when the top teams in the conference are affected) leads to what a defining role satellites played in his career. The heyday of Magic is the heyday of Penny. The dominance of the Lakers is the transformation of Kobe Bryant into a star and a full-fledged assistant. Success in Miami is Dwyane Wade's taste. It seems like a joke, Shaq always described himself as Don Corleone, and associated his partners with the figures of the sons of the “godfather”.
Here he once again tried to hide behind the clowning. But the topic of relationships with other superstars has become too important and painful to ignore the emerging seams.
The departure from Orlando did not come out of the blue. In the series with Chicago, Hardaway pulled out the role of the leader of the Magic and at the same time began to catch up with Shaq in the media plan: Nike then released an ad with a Penny doll, and immediately a rather gray, inconspicuous defender instantly turned into a recognizable superstar. The center quietly clashed with his former comrade, at some point stopped communicating with him and did not even talk about the decision to leave for Los Angeles - although both of them at that moment were preparing to play for the US team at the Olympics. O'Neal moved to California with rumors that he was jealous of Hardaway. In the words of Don Schuck, "Penny is Fredo, he was never ready for me to hand over control to him."
The Lakers did it all again with a stunning coincidence, except that there was nowhere to run. Kobe not only played and began to pull the attack on himself, but also shot as an attractive media figure - the heir to Jordan, or at least Jordan's movements. And Shaq did not hide his jealousy from the very beginning: at first he said that he did not intend to babysit anyone, then he extinguished his partner’s rap career, hit him in training in 98, pointed at him and said “Here lies the problem” in 99 , demanded the ball from Phil Jackson and the press, criticized Kobe for being selfish, demanded an exchange already in 2001. (At the same time, when Kobe tore the Spurs apart, he was quick to portray it as his own personal success and addressed him with fatherly praise: “He is my idol. He is the best player in the league by a wide margin. When he plays like that, everyone is involved, he invests in defense , nothing can be said about him. All year I wanted him to achieve this"). Shaq was funny, funny and witty, Kobe was gloomy, devoid of self-irony and unsociable, it is natural that when the first was put out the door, the anger of the crowd fell on the second. Somehow, few people thought that Bryant was tearing his ass in order to be better and better every season, and his partner only grows in size. When the situation reached a dead end, Shaq again changed the coast. "Kobe is Sonny, he will do anything to be in charge."
There he came to life for the hatred of the Lakers and overtook Kobe in the number of rings. In the same place, he played some kind of understandable but dubious scene for him alone. Wade is, of course, Michael. "If you've seen the trilogy, you know The Godfather hands over control to Michael, so I have no problem doing that." Excellent. Wade received the MVP award of the final series - at the presentation, Shaq snatched the trophy from David Stern and personally presented it to his partner. At the time, he called Wade "the best player of all time" and said that he "came to Miami because of this young guy ... I knew I wanted to make him better." In 2007, both were suffering from injuries and something happened - according to rumors, Shaq sent a photoshopped photo of Wade with a female body to friends. The following season, Kerr sniffed glue and Shaq ended up with the Suns: when Shaq and Wade met on the court, no one would have thought that they had once played for the same team.
And so on. The same pattern was played more than once. Shaq burned bridges leaving every club. He pretended not to know Jerry Bass, savored the clash with Riley, engaged in season-long skirmishes with Stan and Jeff Van Gundy, Patrick Ewing, Chris "Rupaul" of the "big" Bosch, and Dwight Howard, who dared to take the title of "Superman".
Behind the jokes, biting quotes and endless fun, one sees a strange drama. Eternal excuses dominate there, attempts to please everyone and outshine everyone in general, eternal wounding, outright jealousy, attacks on those who can somehow interfere with him or push him to secondary roles.
Shaq said that he deliberately chose to wear a clown mask at school because he was insecure about his size. All this remained with him throughout his career - Shaq succeeded in creating a different reality, where he is the coolest, funniest and most interesting of all, where he is a rapper and actor, TV presenter and writer, one of the richest athletes and a successful businessman, he conquered almost all in this way and deserved gratitude for it even if it didn't resonate too much with the real world.
This is best illustrated by one of the last stories of his career. She was told by insider Mark Stein:
“In March, I learned from a reliable source that Shaq plans to retire. The decision had already been made, and no matter how the Celtics season ended, there was no changing it.
So I went to Houston at the end of March for the Boston road trip to get confirmation from the only undisclosed source on the matter.
The way Shaq limped towards the Celtics bus after that game, the way he looked haggard as I followed him spoke for itself. But I never got confirmation. As usual, another expression of stubborn defiance and outright bravado appeared on my recorder.
- What do you expect from the opportunity to face guys like Dwight Howard and Andrew Bynam in the playoffs?
– Excuse me, what? I don't need to ask such questions.
- But people are interested. These guys play so well and everyone wants to see if you can take them one on one.
- First of all - they won't risk playing one-on-one with me, even at my tender age of 39. And you know what else? The meetings between our teams are related to the struggle of centers, so I don't worry about it at all.
This is the Shaq I want to remember. Nobody talked better. Even when he could hardly walk.
But once Shaq let it slip.
“Frustrated with myself for missing all those free throws. Disappointed that I didn't have enough points to overtake Wilt Chamberlain. As soon as I passed him - and I already passed him in titles - I was going to tell the whole world that I am the most dominant "big" of all time and that I don't want to hear about anyone else: neither Russell nor Kareem. , nor about Chamberlain. This title will now belong to me ... But I could not do it.
The drama here is not at all in the free throws - in many respects the misses were due to the fact that the center did not bend his hand after he broke his arm in childhood.
And the drama is not in the failed pursuit, but in the fact that no matter how different Shaq was from the great centers of the NBA, he could not get very far from them. He was haunted by the ghost of that very Goliath whom no one can love. Shaq gave all his best to achieve adoration, zealously watched that no one bypassed him, sold himself as a league-changing force, did not leave the role of a clown for a second, was clearly worried behind the scenes, tormented himself and the teams with a changeable mood. But the “kids” still turned out much better and did not require so much effort. Although they seemed to remain in his shadow.
This struggle with circumstances made the league better. And she was doomed in much the same way as the struggle against time.
He is still waging this fight, regularly returning to his beloved: “Why do the centers never claim the title of the greatest player in history?”.
The NBA has determined that the attractiveness of the league depends on the small centers and turned the huge centers into a disappearing species. Shaquille was a natural wonder, the best of them all, the most physically gifted, but even he couldn't help it - he was the last great center. In fact, the best and most worthy thing he was capable of was to create the illusion of a new type of giant, a joker, a humorist, a guy who kind of owns this league, although it did not belong to him. To create the illusion that this is not another painful story of a misunderstood and unaccepted Goliath, that he did everything the way he wanted to - enjoying the league to the fullest.
Now this fight is completely lost. And there will never be another like Shaq. He did not dominate so unequivocally in his era either - he hardly got out of the “paint”, received from the perimeter from small and throwing “big ones”, lost in desire and composure to Tim Duncan in 2003, relied on snipers in key minutes of the series with Portland, Sacramento and Dallas. And it is absolutely impossible to imagine him in an era that expelled from the sites all the pivots who do not know how to move at the speed of kids.
Although O’Neal continued to dominate on offense, his teams continued to disappoint in the play-offs. That changed in 1999–2000, when, under new Lakers coach Phil Jackson, he became the league’s Most Valuable Player (MVP). At Jackson’s urging, O’Neal became more of a team player, paying special attention to his defense, rebounding, and free-throw shooting. As a result, he led the Lakers to championships in 2001, 2002, and 2003, capturing the finals MVP award each year.
He signed with the Boston Celtics in 2010, but an Achilles tendon injury limited his play. O’Neal retired after the 2010–11 season. His career totals include 28,596 points (the seventh highest total in NBA history at the time of his retirement) and 15 All-Star Game selections. O’Neal was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016..jpg)
Seemingly no one could stop him.
Not only that, but La La Land turned him into a winner as well.
Fully rejuvenated and with a new roster, he earned his fourth ring with the organization in 2006.
He played for nineteen seasons in the NBA and was with a total of six teams.
In such cases, the system yields pliantly, realizing that the value of such athletes, not only for the game, but also for history, is too significant to be neglected. Even now, the rules of basketball are changing, it's just not as noticeable today as when the game was just being structured, and that's when many of the laws that seem ordinary to us today evolved thanks to or in spite of these people. 
In order to somehow try to equalize the chances of his opponents, in 1951 the league expanded the limits of space near the ring. 
100 points in one game, 55 rebounds in one game, with dimensions of 216 cm and 125 kg, he remained the best assistant in the league for a whole season. 
In other words, what is now a show-piece in an All-Star game or a dunk contest was for Chamberlain a regular gaming routine. 
In the late 70s and early 80s, there wasn't a man in the NBA who - pardon the pun - had more broken shields than Dawkins. 
With all his accomplishments, antics and jumps, Shaq, meanwhile, is the only center since Wilt Chamberlain to have so dominated his opponents. 
Together with the simple method of "Hack a Shaq" - "Foul on Shaq", this gave some trump cards to the teams against which O'Neal played. But even under those conditions, he managed to pound the league's best centers for most of his career. 
" Do you know who came up with this cliche? That's right, Shaquille O'Neal himself. 
The center was exceptional not for his size, but for the fact that he dragged them with unconstrained ease, with smooth movements reminiscent of a cartoonish, unnaturally light, dancing hippopotamus (“a mixture of Terminator and Bambi deer,” his agent said), exploded with sharp turns to the right or left and managed to stick a leg, and behind it an ass for anyone - and with the power of such a lever it was possible to move the Earth. There has never been anything like it in the sport: Shaq was stronger, faster and bigger than any center. 
But Harden also collects numbers - Shaq in his landmark years created a feeling of unfair dominance towards opponents. And this feeling was even more multiplied due to the primitiveness of his game. Everyone understood what he would do, everyone understood that he had about two moves and one grimace in his arsenal, but the Lakers stupidly pushed the ball again and again, and the triangular attack made delivery so easy that sooner or later the trick happened: Shaq jumped on the shield again and again and again until there was no one else around. 
And the entire league adopted the technique. 
Then the league introduced a zone under the ring, in which fouls were not recorded in the attack - Shaq's rivals lost the opportunity to at least substitute, and he continued to sweep them left and right with even greater ferocity. 
When Mutombo was demolished without options, all this latent discussion spilled over into the surface and acted as not the most adequate frame for the most dominant campaign in the playoffs at that time. 
Especially strange when you consider that Shaq has always had very high-quality, and sometimes even stellar teams. 
And then Shakoba (and his legacy) would have been looked at differently by the Lakers - in the next season, Bryant was already actively claiming the place of the first. 
“But a few days later he came up to me: “You know, you were right. That was my fault. I shouldn't have done that." 
Kobe not only played and began to pull the attack on himself, but also shot as an attractive media figure - the heir to Jordan, or at least Jordan's movements. And Shaq did not hide his jealousy from the very beginning: at first he said that he did not intend to babysit anyone, then he extinguished his partner’s rap career, hit him in training in 98, pointed at him and said “Here lies the problem” in 99 , demanded the ball from Phil Jackson and the press, criticized Kobe for being selfish, demanded an exchange already in 2001. (At the same time, when Kobe tore the Spurs apart, he was quick to portray it as his own personal success and addressed him with fatherly praise: “He is my idol. He is the best player in the league by a wide margin. When he plays like that, everyone is involved, he invests in defense , nothing can be said about him. All year I wanted him to achieve this"). Shaq was funny, funny and witty, Kobe was gloomy, devoid of self-irony and unsociable, it is natural that when the first was put out the door, the anger of the crowd fell on the second.
Somehow, few people thought that Bryant was tearing his ass in order to be better and better every season, and his partner only grows in size. When the situation reached a dead end, Shaq again changed the coast. "Kobe is Sonny, he will do anything to be in charge." 
The following season, Kerr sniffed glue and Shaq ended up with the Suns: when Shaq and Wade met on the court, no one would have thought that they had once played for the same team. 
Shaquille was a natural wonder, the best of them all, the most physically gifted, but even he couldn't help it - he was the last great center. In fact, the best and most worthy thing he was capable of was to create the illusion of a new type of giant, a joker, a humorist, a guy who kind of owns this league, although it did not belong to him. To create the illusion that this is not another painful story of a misunderstood and unaccepted Goliath, that he did everything the way he wanted to - enjoying the league to the fullest. 
