(Translator's note: This article is written by The Athletic journalist Jason Jones, and the content of this article does not represent the views of the translator.) ）
Welcome to the NBA 75, The Athletic's one-by-one inventory of NBA's 75 biggest stars to mark the league's 75th anniversary. We will announce each weekday the greatest player of all time selected by The Athletic's NBA staff panel.
He's very likable. He's a 7-foot-1 teddy bear selling auto insurance; he's the cover character for Frosted Flakes; he's a pizza salesman who holds executive positions at Papa John's. If you treat your back pain with Icy Hot, you'll also get in touch with him. He owns those gold (Gold Bonds and Olympic medals), and don't forget his weekly verbal battle with Charles Buckley on TNT's Inside the NBA.
Shaquille O'Neal may retire from the NBA, but he's everywhere.
For a particular generation, it's hard to imagine O'Neal being one of the greatest basketball players of all time. But this naughty big man is not an athlete who only dunks, he has a strong punitive nature. This "diesel engine" dunked on the opponent's head, and the ground was full of corpses, leaving broken rebounds. And it's not just the rebounds, as Darryl Dawkins (a former NBA player, two smash rebounds) did, but the whole column. He had fun while smashing the rebound and managed to intimidate the big man on the other side.
To find the round that best reflects this, let's go back to March 25, 1999, when the Los Angeles Lakers played at home to the New York Knicks. O'Neal received a pass from Kobe Bryant and withdrew from Knicks center Chris Dudley. Before Dudley could react, O'Neal was already under the basket and then turned to face the basket for a brutal dunk. Dudley's face eventually came into close contact with Shaq's torso. And O'Neill stretched out his leg—like his Dunk man trademark—and Dudley gripped O'Neill's leg tightly for thoughtfulness. Although the dunk was powerful enough and humiliating enough, Shaq finally added a push, as if Big Brother had pushed his little brother to the ground.
Dudley fell to the floor of the Big Western Forum and then got up and threw the ball at O'Neal.
It's okay, Chris. You're not the first and not the last to feel Shaq's anger, the man who is no. 8 on The Athletic NBA's Big 75 list. O'Neal is in the top 10 players of all time because he is the most dominant in his generation. The combination of his stature, strength and basketball IQ made him a once-in-a-lifetime genius. From landing in the NBA in Orlando in 1992 to retiring in 2011, O'Neal was a very bright star who took entertaining fans as seriously as he did crushing opponents.
"The brightest star in the group," said Tyrone Lue, a former teammate who is currently the los Angeles Clippers coach and has spent three seasons with O'Neal with the Lakers. "I think he's out of the ordinary with the Lakers, he and Kobe [Bryant], they mean a lot to the Lakers and to the City of Los Angeles."
Not just Los Angeles. How strong is O'Neill's presence? He was named to the NBA's Big 50 list in 1996 — just four seasons into his career.
Dominique Wilkins is not on that list. Bob McAdoo was also not selected, having been named NBA MVP of 1975 and leading the league scoring list for three consecutive seasons. Both were certified legends, but Shaq, who was only 24 at the time, already had a place among the greatest players of all time. Of course it wasn't recognized by everyone, but Shaq lived up to the lofty expectations he had carried early in his career, and he cemented his position as what may have been the most dominant physically dominant player in league history, with only Wilt Chamberlain discussed. He was unprecedented in league history, even when there were Hakim Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing and David Robinson, the best big men in the league.
Steve Kerr, the current Golden State Warriors coach who was traded to Orlando in December 1992, said: "He's bigger, stronger and faster than everyone else. "He's as good as Patrick Ewing, as good as Hakim Olajuwon, and David Robinson, and these guys are Hall of Famers, amazing players." But compared to any of these opponents, Shaq is either bigger, stronger, faster, or has the upper hand across the board.
"He's a lot bigger than Hackham, he's a lot thicker than David, he's a lot faster than Patrick. It's like he always has that advantage physically. And because he's not yet sculpted and so young, they have a skill advantage over him, which is something he's learned in the league's previous years. ”
And an unpolished O'Neal has already won the NBA's Rookie of the Year with 23.4 points, 13.9 rebounds and 3.5 blocks per game, ushering in one of the greatest eras led by one of the greatest centers in history.
O'Neal is the last real center to win the championship as a core player, (if you don't think Tim Duncan is a center). He won the NBA Finals MVP (2000-02) for three consecutive years, a feat that only Michael Jordan (twice) has done.
O'Neal is a four-time NBA champion, a two-time league leading scorer, and the 2000 NBA MVP. He was named an All-Star 15 times and won the All-Star MVP three times. O'Neal has been named to the league's best 14 times, including eight first-time appearances. He scored 28,596 points when he retired, ranking eighth in league history.
He also had a profound impact off the field. Big men are usually not popular. Some people find it uncomfortable to grow so tall and frustrated. But O'Neill won't. He has a unique charm that attracts fans as well as teammates.
"What stands out about him is his passion for life," Cole said. "He has an incredible personality. Most of the big guys around me are very reserved, not particularly attractive, and everyone is quieter, but this guy is unique in personality and presence.
"So you can see that there's something special about him, not just talent, but when he was a human being."
When he first entered the NBA, he was 7 feet 1 tall and weighed 294 pounds, and at his peak he weighed more than 300 pounds (he weighed 325 pounds in the official record during the triple crown). His shoulders are so wide that even the biggest big guys in the NBA look small around him. In addition to the brute force that makes his dunks look so incredible, O'Neal also has light footwork. O'Neill is fortunate to have perfect footwork, a quick first step, and a soft feel in the near-frame area, all of which will be reflected in his turn jump shot or hook hand.
"That's what makes him unbelievable — he's the biggest man in the league, the strongest against the guy, but he's also fast," said former teammate Luke Wharton. "He can pass the ball because he's playing a triangle offense, so not only does he have blocking and dismantling, but he has insight into the game; he's smart and he can learn a lot from the game.
"He's so huge and he has that skill and understanding of the game that makes him one of the greatest centre-forwards of all time. But if he's just big, he won't win those championships. ”
Like george mcCann and Wilt Chamberlain, the great centers who preceded his career, O'Neal changed the game with his dominance and physique. He asked the NBA to allow regional defenses to return to the league in the 2001-02 season. This can also be referred to as shark area defense clauses. There's nothing more dominant than a league changing the rules just to give defenders a chance.
"Shaq is too hard to defend because you can only defend alone," O'Neal's Lakers coach Phil Jackson said in a live broadcast of a 2013 Huff post. "You can pack clips, but you have to be in a specific way, Shaq in the paint is a good passer. He's the one who changed the game to the way it is in this day and age.
"No matter how you want to play, you should be able to play. But Shaq's dominance changed the game. ”
The best defense against O'Neal is to put him on the free throw line. He only shot 52.7 percent from the free throws in his career, and shark-cutting tactics were once very popular. But he wasn't the first. Because there are teams that deliberately violate the rules against Chamberlain many times, a rule came into being. Deliberately fouled a non-ball-handling player in the last two minutes, the player was awarded two free throws and the team retained the ball. The NBA changed the rules as fouls against O'Neal made the game intermittent, but this was not implemented until the 2016-17 season after O'Neal retired.
O'Neal isn't just a Los Angeles star. He is a cultural symbol like a Hollywood star or a top music artist. He is Shaq, the most dominant player on the pitch and the star with the strongest presence on the pitch.
"I think when Shaq signed here, it changed the overall dynamics of Los Angeles," Lu said. "The way he gets along with the media, the way he looks when he's with his teammates, the relationships he has with his fans, so he's hugely influential. He was probably one of L.A's most popular people at the time. ”
After losing to the Detroit Pistons in the 2004 NBA Finals and arguing with Kobe Bryant, the Lakers fell apart and O'Neal was traded to Miami. Two seasons later, the Heat won the championship. When O'Neal is at his peak, having him means you're a title contender. He reached the NBA Finals with the Orlando Magic, Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat.
Despite O'Neal's many accolades, some critics believe that if O'Neal had taken the game more seriously, he would have been more dominant.
Early in his career, O'Neill was a platinum-selling rapper, and he also appeared in movies. His funny personality has made him popular with fans, but critics say he should pay more attention to the game.
In the 1995 NBA Finals, the Magic were swept by the Rockets, and O'Neal played another season in Orlando before moving to Los Angeles, where it was thought he would soon become a champion. But as the Lakers were eliminated by Utah and San Antonio in the playoffs, there were growing calls about O'Neal's distraction. Although O'Neal was named to the NBA's All-Defensive Second Team three times, opponents still said he was a burden on defense, especially when faced with blocking.
What's more, for the accolades, record sales and filmmaking that critics have slammed, he cares most about saying he's not a champion. He famously said, "I'm a winner everywhere but college and professional." ”
And that all changed in 2000, when the dynamic O'Neal teamed up with Kobe Bryant to lead the Lakers to a three-game winning streak. O'Neal averaged 38 points, 16.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.7 blocks per game on his second Trip to the Finals, leading the team to beat Indiana.
And that year O'Neal also won his only regular season MVP. He averaged a career-high 29.7 points (leading the league), 13.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 3.0 blocks per game. O'Neal also leads the league in terms of shooting percentage (57.4 percent), which is also one of his 10 league shooting percentages in the NBA. He also averaged a career-high 40 minutes per game, which is a remarkable stat given his size and the defensive pressure he faces.
In 2001, O'Neal led the team to eliminate Philadelphia, and the team defended O'Neal with Hall of Famers, four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Deakimbe Mutombo, and other 7-footers. But it didn't work because O'Neal won another NBA Finals MVP with 33 points, 15.8 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 3.4 blocks per game. The Lakers swept New Jersey in 2002, with O'Neal averaging 36.3 points, 12.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.8 blocks per game, winning the Finals MVP for the third consecutive time.
Along the way, O'Neill has the ability to anger his opponents. For him, it was just part of the entertainment. He called the Sacramento Kings "Queens" (for which he later apologized). After the Lakers beat the Kings in the 2002 Western Conference Finals G7, O'Neal announced that Sacramento was no longer the capital of California. His fans love him for doing that. As for his critics, well, there will always be critics.
But along with the success, the dramatic part also came. Bryant publicly complained that O'Neal was in poor shape. O'Neal complained that the young star was selfish. Some of Bryant's disdain dates back to the 2002-03 season, when O'Neal postponed surgery on his injured toe and missed the start of the season because he had to "heal on company time." Bryant took a hit; the Lakers started with an 11-19 record, finishing fifth in the West in the season, before the team was eliminated by spurs in the Western Conference semifinals.
After the NBA Finals loss to Detroit, the league's most dynamic combination was questioned, with O'Neal's form being questioned and Bryant's decision being questioned as well. The Lakers chose to side with the younger, seemingly more loyal Kobe Bryant and traded O'Neal to Miami.
But O'Neill wasn't over. Reintroduced, O'Neal helped the Heat reach the Eastern Conference Finals and the 2006 NBA Finals. But instead of being the player at the heart of the game, O'Neal chose to do what he didn't do in Los Angeles, willingly submissive to rising star guard Dwyane Wade, who led the Heat in six games to beat the Dallas Mavericks to win the championship and win the NBA Finals MVP.
In February 2008, the Heat had a bad start to the season, and O'Neal and Pat Riley fell out, and the team traded O'Neal to Phoenix. The deal was special because coach Mike D'Antoni was partly on a "7-second offense" against O'Neal during the Lakers. And now, if the Spurs become a problem for the Suns in the playoffs, the older O'Neal can go against his old rival, Duncan.
"He brought us a lot of good things and made a difference in the lows," said Kerr, then General Manager of Phoenix. "It was an interesting experiment. At that time, the team felt that the championship hopes of this small ball team had passed us by, so we made this big deal.
"Because he was over the top at the time, it was a bit too much to expect him to lead us to the championship, but he did a good job of integrating into the team. Mike D'Antoni often puts him in the high position as a passer, and of course allows him to open up space for the team at the low post. I think he's well adapted to what Mike asked him to do. ”
Kerr said O'Neill's experience in the triangle under Jackson allowed him to make such adjustments. Most of the offense passes O'Neal, and he's a good passer who can read the game very well.
"He's a very smart player," Kerr said. "I think he exercised everything while he was in L.A. Meeting Phil Jackson was great for him and vice versa, and I think he's learned a lot from L.A. and built on his basketball IQ. I think he carried that forward and made him play better at this age than a lot of people think. ”
The following season, O'Neal became the 2009 All-Star and shared an All-Star MVP with Kobe Bryant, and the pair were smiling at their former teammates that night. But O'Neal never returned to the Finals, making brief stops in Cleveland and Boston before retiring in 2011.
Before Kobe's death in 2020, Kobe Bryant's relationship with O'Neill was repaired. Although he is strict with people off the field, he will also be very caring. He also defends his teammates.
"He makes everything interesting and from that point of view he's a good team-mate," Wharton said. "He's tough on the rookies, but on the pitch he's pushing us up. Whenever someone provoked us, Shaq would come forward.
"When you're a rookie and your father is a former NBA player, especially a star like Bill (Wharton), there are players who like to make your life tough. Any time someone messed with me, he would tell me to block them and swap them over, and then clean them up for me. So, I love Shaq. ”
This love for teammates extends beyond the pitch. He can make everyone feel inclusive and do everything he can to get his teammates involved in his activities.
"Every time we were in town, he would drive a luxury car and then take us to dinner or take us into what he was doing," Wharton said. "Others in the team can make a choice; if they want to go, they can join. But he would tell me and another rookie, Brian Cook, "You two don't have a choice. ”
"So whatever he wants to do, we have to be accompanied, but he does cover us. He's very interesting; at the same time he's very dominant, and it's fun to play with him. ”
There is no center like O'Neal in the NBA anymore. It's not that his collective, strength, and technology-all qualities can't be replicated, it's just that today, centers who don't shoot three-pointers and can't pull away space on the perimeter are rare. The offense is no longer focused on big men like O'Neill, who are going to take root in the paint and make you pay.
But can players like Shaquille O'Neal survive in today's NBA?
"He can average 60 points per game," Lu said. "Small balls, these things, there will be no chance at all, not even a chance. Now people will put a space number five on the field, push the number four to the number five, or put the number three on the fifth position. He averaged 60 points at the venue, and every player on the opponent was sent off.
"In the way you play now, if Shaq is still around, you'll never be able to escape what you just said."
Law Murray of The Athletic also contributed to this article
Author: Jason Jones
Editor: Nebula