After 19 seasons Shaquille O’Neal is retiring from the game of basketball.If there were a Mount Rushmore for NBA centers it would be Bill
Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Shaquille O’Neal.
O’Neal has been nicknamed everything for “The Diesel” to “Shaqtus” and
he has never been a disappointment on or off the court with his style.
The big man from LSU entered The NBA in 1992 as the number one overall
pick by The Orlando Magic. O’Neal made an immediate impact averaging 23
points per game to go along with nearly 14 rebounds in his rookie season
en route to winning Rookie of The Year. O’Neal also unseeded New York
Knick star Patrick Ewing as the top big man in The Eastern Conference.
The Magic improved their win total by 20 games in O’Neal first season
and narrowly missed the playoffs. During that off season The Magic won
The NBA’s lottery for the second straight year and selected forward
Chris Webber. The Magic immediately traded Webber to The Golden State
Warriors for their first round draft pick Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway. The
duo of Shaq and Penny would go on to be nightmares for opponents and
the players the every kid in America emulated on the playgrounds.
By O’Neal’s third season with The Magic they made The NBA Finals.
Despite O’Neal averaging 28 points per contest, The Magic were swept by
The Houston Rockets. Many felt this was a bump in the road for this
young team and that championships were on the horizon.
In 1996, friction between O’Neal and Magic head coach Brian Hill led to
“The Daddy” departing Orlando and heading west to Los Angeles to play
for The Lakers. Along with signing O’Neal, Laker general manager Jerry
West pulled off one of the greatest draft day trades when he traded
center Vlade Divac to The Charlotte Hornets for the 13th overall of the
draft Kobe Bryant.
Bryant and O’Neal would go on to lead The Lakers to three NBA Titles as
they were the new dynamic duo of The NBA. Most people in Hollywood have
egos the size of my stomach and these two fit in that mold.
In 2004, O’Neal was traded to The Miami Heat and teamed with another
outstanding guard in Dwyane Wade. At this point O’Neal was slowing down
as he had plenty of mileage on his body. Despite that O’Neal still had
enough in the tank to help The Heat win their first NBA Title in 2006.
Since then O’Neal has been a journeyman playing for The Phoenix Suns,
Cleveland Cavaliers, and Boston Celtics. Over the years critics always
tried to find something to criticize O’Neal about. O’Neal is a career 53
percent free throw shooter but the man still averaged nearly 24 points
during his career, so imagine if he shot the ball from the charity line
at a better percentage? O’Neal never had the best post moves in the
business but at 7’1″ and over 300 lbs. his opponents were just worried
about being run over. O’Neal was a one man wrecking crew in the paint.
In The 2001 NBA Finals versus The Philadelphia 76ers O’Neal destroyed
Defensive Player of The Year Dikembe Mutombo. O’Neal averaged 30 points
along with 15 boards during that playoff run as The Lakers only lost one
contest during the postseason.
O’Neal has a smile that can light up a room and is charismatic as the
day is long. Shaq parlayed this into a career outside of basketball. O’Neal starred in the 1994 film Blue Chips. O’Neal
had his own video game entitled Shaq Fu for both Sega Genesis and Super
Nintendo. O’Neal also recorded five five rap albums. The first Shaq
Diesel went on to receive platinum certification. Over the years O’Neal
has been a pitchman for companies such as Pepsi, Reebok, and Icy Hot.
O’Neal will retire as The NBA’s fifth all-time scorer with 28,596
points. He reties as one of the most colorful men to put on a basketball
uniform. Whether it was putting on Mickey Mouse ears when he was
drafted by The Magic or referring to The Sacramento Kings as “The
Sacramento Queens” for their soft play, O’Neal was always a reporters
dream. O’Neal is a kid at heart that played a man’s game. O’Neal was
more powerful than most. In his rookie campaign he tore down the rim
versus The Phoenix Suns and New Jersey Nets and put the league on notice
that the league wasn’t ready for Shaq. His size 22 sneakers are big to
fill and no one may ever fill them.
O’Neal hoisted The NBA Title four times and was a one-time Olympic Gold
Medalist to go along with 15 All-Star Game appearances and one Most
Valuable Player award. The only question that remains for the now
retired O’Neal is how long will he have to wait for enshrinement to The
Basketball Hall of Fame. O’Neal took the leagu by storm and we never had a dull moment with “The Big Aristotle” around.
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