Although many people can't understand it, I would like to say that O'Neill can be called a real hero of the times!
What people see is O'Neal's dominance in three consecutive championships and three consecutive MVPs, but O'Neill's dominance is not only his own source, but also a change in the rules of the league, and his loss of dominance is largely attributable to another change in NBA rules.
Jordan's era of the NBA developed rapidly, and the league's administrators realized that perhaps fans did not want to watch the center jump a little and put it into the basket, but liked to watch Jordan, a defender who fully displayed his athletic talent, from a group of elders to kill a dunk, which may be a remake of the story of David and Goliath in the minds of NBA league managers.
However, with the side effects of some rules in the NBA (see the articles in my column for details), the pace of the game is getting slower and slower, and the average score per game is getting less and less, which is worse than jordan's retirement after the NBA feels the crisis.
In order to turn things around, the league shortened the three-point line in the hope of increasing the number of three-point shots (this part can also be seen in my previous column), but although the shortening of the three-point line has increased the three-point shooting and shooting rate, because the three-point line is closer to the basket, resulting in the court space being more crowded, people are concentrated on the inside line, the defense is tighter, the shooting rate continues to decline, the score continues to decrease, and the game is more ugly when the breakthrough dunk is reduced.
There are new rules with BUG
In order to reverse this situation and add breakthrough dunks, the league introduced a "reasonable collision zone" in the 97-98 season. In short, the pink circle in the picture below, if the defender has physical contact with the offensive player (vacated) in that circle (even if one foot is on that circle), then the defender is fouled.
This rule is undoubtedly meant to enhance the breakthrough of outside players, but the league's decision-makers themselves do not play, so they missed a bug - O'Neal!
O'Neal's body has absolute dominance over other players, even if he gets the ball a little farther away, with this reasonable collision zone, even if there is a defensive player in front of him, he can hang on to the human attack frame without considering the problem of offensive fouls.
This rule unleashes O'Neill's physical talent once and for all! You can see the huge improvement in O'Neal's shooting percentage and basket shooting rate in the 96-97 and 97-98 seasons in the chart below.
This is true in the regular season, and it is even more obvious in the playoffs.
Of course, in addition to his own promotion, O'Neal is a person who is difficult to defeat with two fists and four hands, and when Kobe Bryant rises, the Lakers have completely become an unstoppable team.
As we all know, Adelman famously said that O'Neill and Kobe Bryant are like two bottles of poison, and they must choose one bottle. In fact, this is what he said from the perspective of the Western team, the Western team because of the high quality of the inside line at least there is still room for choice, to the Finals, those Eastern teams because of the weakness of the inside line does not even have room for choice, the Lakers almost broke their mouths to pour O'Neal's poison into it.
It's hard to argue that the league's reasonable collision zone didn't work, because after creating a reasonable charge zone, the league's basketball shooting percentage also soared, from 55.2% to 62.8%!
Of course, for the rest of the league players, it is only a BUFF in the snow, but O'Neill has added a dragon arrogant BUFF, he is like the protagonist of the out-of-control player, becoming a completely beyond the rules of the game.
This huge bug must be fixed or otherwise other teams won't be able to play!
The League made a big move to block the BUG - O'Neal
Although the reasonable collision zone is not set up for O'Neal, the open joint defense is a special patch for O'Neill, although it will hurt other players, but in order to balance the rules, O'Neill must be banned!
The NBA's joint defense, which hasn't been used in years, had to be activated in the 01-02 season because of O'Neal's monster-like performance!
Many fans may wonder, isn't O'Neal a triple-title in the 01-02 season?
Although the Lakers won three consecutive championships in the 01-02 season, the role of Roneil that season was not as good as before, even though in the Finals, he could abuse the eastern teams that were useless inside, but he could not get what he wanted in the West.
The most typical is that the Spurs, who are also strong on the inside, are more comfortable facing O'Neal.
In the 00-01 season, the Lakers faced the Spurs, O'Neal could average 21.3 shots per game and score 27 points, but in the 01-02 season, O'Neal could only average 18.8 shots per game and score 21.4 points.
Of course, this weakening is not only for O'Neal himself, the defensive intensity has surged after the joint defense is used, the Lakers averaged 103.5 points per game against the Spurs in the 00-01 season, and only 90 points per game in the 01-02 season!
00-01 season Lakers over the Spurs can be said to be devastated, to the 01-02 season Lakers over the Spurs although the result is 4-1, but the process is like walking on thin ice, that series Kobe Bryant with an average of 45.5% per game shooting rate to score 26.2 points, this does not look high, but to know that O'Neal that series shooting rate is only 44.7%, not as good as Kobe!
The 01-02 season was the worst season of the past 5 seasons for O'Neal, but it will be the best season for the future season, because the new rules have just been introduced and many people are still adapting to the rules, so the joint defense is not a good choice for all teams. Spurs this tactical literacy may be faster to get started, other teams' ability will wait for 1-2 seasons before it can be fully released, and the Spurs at that time David Robinson has reached the end of his career, Ginobili has not yet joined the team, so it is normal to lose to the Lakers.
The joint defense's restriction on O'Neal is more of his role in the team, more typically the team is difficult to comfortably send the ball to O'Neal's hands, so O'Neal can no longer easily get the shot space, it is difficult to digest a large number of ball rights, after the 02-03 season O'Neal has not been able to get more than 15 shots per game. Because the outside players with the ball in hand have more options, although the offensive efficiency is reduced, it is still no problem to digest the ball.
In fact, the back story we all know, the 02-03 season Spurs put together the GDP combination, although David Robinson is older, but the team's offensive shortcomings have been made up, the era of the Lakers is over, and although the back relies on F4 and the confusing 0.4 seconds to return to the west, but O'Neal's era of dominating the league finally came to an end, and the most destructive monster in the modern basket was locked up in a cage.
Interior players with greater offensive range and better maneuverability occupy the league's highest stage, averaging 29 points per game in the 01-02 playoffs and against O'Neal (remember O'Neal's 21.4 points above), and Duncan, who has 17.2 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 3.2 blocks, is among the leaders. Even though he didn't win consecutive championships, the NBA officially recognized Duncan's dynasty.
As for the Lakers, there is a rift because of the change of rules, O'Neal no longer has the ability to digest a large number of shots, but he is not willing to lose his position, no one can open his eyes, perhaps if he knows that after the failure of the 03-04 season, the league will change the joint defense problem that will push the rhythm of the whole league to the bottom, and the outside players will also be more hot because of this new rule, then he will give way to Kobe, and the two will continue to join forces to attack the championship.
But the truth is that the brothers are on the wall, and it wasn't until Kobe Got the MVP that the two laughed and hated each other.