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Shaquille O'Neal - Num 33 - Pos: Center
Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal (born March 6, 1972), frequently referred to simply as Shaq, is one of the National Basketball Association's most dominant and famous basketball players. He currently plays center for the Miami Heat, after years with both the Orlando Magic and Los Angeles Lakers. Throughout his career, he has won four NBA Championships, most recently with the Miami Heat in 2006.
At 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m), 325 pounds (147 kg) and U.S. shoe size 22, he is famous for his physical stature. He has several nicknames, most of which he conferred upon himself, such as The Diesel, The Big Aristotle, The Big Baryshnikov, M.D.E (Most Dominant Ever), Superman, and most recently after earning his MBA, Doctor Shaq. Heralded since he entered the league at 20 years of age, his 14-year career has been one of the most impressive of any player in NBA history and this holds true to an even greater extent for centers. O'Neal was ranked #9 on SLAM Magazine's Top 75 NBA Players of all time in 2003.
O'Neal, born in Newark, New Jersey, was named "Shaquille Rashaun" by his biological father, Joseph Toney. However, he is not close to his father; one of his songs, "Biological Didn't Bother", explains his feelings. (It is commonly reported that "Shaquille Rashaun" means "little warrior" in Arabic, but this is a misconception as neither "Shaquille" nor "Rashaun" is an Arabic word or name; they are from one or both of Persian and Urdu.[citation needed])
O'Neal's mother, Lucille O'Neal, married U.S. Army sergeant and future FBI agent Phillip Harrison (whom O'Neal considers his father figure) shortly after Shaquille's birth. O'Neal spent some of his childhood in Germany in Wildflecken, Bavaria, where his stepfather Harrison was stationed with the U.S. Army. It was there that he first began to play basketball and where he would meet his future college coach, Dale Brown.
One childhood story tells that O'Neal fractured both of his wrists while climbing between two trees, trying to imitate Superman, his comic book favorite.
He first gained national attention as a star at Robert G. Cole Junior-Senior High School in San Antonio, Texas. He became High School Player of the Year during his playing years there. As a young man, he attended Louisiana State University (LSU) and studied business. While on LSU's basketball team, he was a two-time first team All-American, two-time Southeastern Conference player of the year, and the national player of the year in 1991. He holds the NCAA record for shots blocked in a game with 17 blocks against Mississippi State University on December 3, 1990.
Dale Brown, LSU's coach at that time, states that he first met O'Neal while Brown was visiting Germany, and mistook the then-13 year old for one of the soldiers. At the time, O'Neal was already 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m), but weighed only about 223 pounds (101 kg). Over the next several years, he would grow several more inches, but put on 80 pounds (36 kg) of muscle. He also attended Fulda American High School, a DODDS school in Fulda, Germany.
In 2000 O'Neal became a member of the LSU Hall of Fame.
O'Neal was drafted first overall in the 1992 NBA Draft by the Orlando Magic. During that summer, prior to moving to Orlando, he spent a significant amount of time in Los Angeles under the tutelage of Hall of Famer Magic Johnson.
O'Neal had an exceptional rookie season, as he helped the Magic win 20 more games than the previous season, with the team ultimately missing the playoffs by only one game. O'Neal averaged 23.4 points and 13.9 rebounds on the season and was named the 1993 NBA Rookie of the Year. O'Neal played in the All-Star game and scored 14 points. On two occasions during that season, each during a nationally televised game, O'Neal dunked the ball so hard that he broke the backboard support units.
After his first season in Orlando, O'Neal returned to Los Angeles during the summer, where he was cast in a role in Blue Chips (along with future teammate Anfernee Hardaway), a film about college recruits getting paid to play basketball. He also recorded rap music over that summer.
O'Neal's sophomore season was even better than his first. He averaged 29.3 points and led the NBA in field goal percentage at 60%. He was also voted into another All-Star game and helped the Magic make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. On November 20, 1993, against the New Jersey Nets, O'Neal registered the first triple-double of his career, recording 24 points to go along with career highs of 28 rebounds and 15 blocks.
In his third season, O'Neal led the NBA in scoring, with 2,315 total points and, like his second season, averaged 29.3 points per game. Orlando won 57 games and won the Atlantic Division. The Magic made it all the way to the NBA Finals, but they were swept by the Houston Rockets. By O'Neal's own admission, he was badly outplayed during that series by Houston's far more experienced superstar center Hakeem Olajuwon, despite putting up admirable numbers in the series. Nonetheless, Olajuwon saw enough potential in O'Neal that Olajuwon (correctly) predicted that O'Neal would some day return to the Finals and win a championship[citation needed]. O'Neal has stated that this was one of only two times in his life that he ever cried (the other at the death of his grandmother). His father also used the loss as motivation, saying to his son that "maybe you shouldn't have shook Mr Olajuwon's hand" (in congratulations for his win).
O'Neal was injured for a great deal of the 1995-96 season, missing 28 games. He was still able to have a good season, but not as good as he had hoped. The Magic won 60 games and won the Atlantic Division again, but Orlando lost to the Chicago Bulls in the playoffs. Now a free agent, O'Neal contemplated whether his future would be best served by remaining with the Magic or by moving on to a new team.
By this point, O'Neal showed interest in many things besides basketball. He started making rap CDs and met with some measure of success. He also took an interest in making more movies. O'Neal also began taking classes again at LSU to complete his degree, to fulfill his promise to his mother he would graduate.
That summer, O'Neal was named to the United States Olympic team. In the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, O'Neal helped the U.S. win the gold medal in men's basketball. O'Neal has expressed the great pride he felt at the moment that the gold medal was placed around his neck.
Shortly before the Olympics began, O'Neal announced he had made his decision regarding his NBA future — he was moving to Los Angeles to become a Laker.
After the 1995-1996 season, O'Neal left the Orlando Magic to join the Los Angeles Lakers, enticed by the allure of a seven-year, $120 million contract. He had always wanted to play for the Lakers, and thus turned down an even larger contract offer from the Magic.
O'Neal joined a young Laker squad that had recently returned to the playoffs, but of which little was expected. O'Neal's arrival vastly changed expectations, but he missed a significant number of games due to injury in the 1996-97 season and several players had difficulty meshing with new focal point of the offense. By 1997-98, key role players Rick Fox and Robert Horry had been added by Laker GM Jerry West. This group meshed well and won 61 regular season games. However, in both of his first two seasons in Los Angeles, O'Neal suffered a lopsided play-off defeat by the Utah Jazz.
The Lakers were clearly a team on the rise with the tandem of O'Neal and teenage superstar Kobe Bryant. However, the 1998-99 season was marked by nearly constant change within the Lakers. Long-time Lakers point guard Nick Van Exel was traded to the Denver Nuggets after a dispute with O'Neal. His former back court partner Eddie Jones was packaged with back-up center Elden Campbell for Glen Rice to satisfy a demand by O'Neal for a shooter. Coach Del Harris was fired and former Chicago Bulls forward Dennis Rodman was signed. The result was no better as the Lakers were swept by the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference semi-finals.
In 1999, the Lakers hired Phil Jackson as their new head coach, and the team's fortunes soon changed. Utilizing Jackson's triangle offense, O'Neal and Kobe Bryant became perhaps the greatest guard-center combination in NBA history, and the two went on to enjoy tremendous success on the court, as they led the Los Angeles Lakers to three consecutive NBA titles (2000, 2001, 2002). O'Neal was named MVP of the NBA Finals all three times and has the highest scoring average for a center in Finals history.
O'Neal was also voted the 1999-2000 regular season Most Valuable Player, coming just one vote short of becoming the first unanimous MVP in NBA history. Fred Hickman, then of CNN, was the sole voter who did not cast his first place vote for O'Neal, instead choosing Allen Iverson of the Philadelphia 76ers.
After the Lakers failed to reach the Finals in 2003, the team made a concerted off-season effort to improve its roster. They sought the free agent services of forward legend Karl Malone and aging guard Gary Payton, but due to salary cap restrictions, could not offer either one nearly as much money as he could have made with other teams. O'Neal assisted in the recruitment efforts and personally persuaded both men to join the team. Ultimately, each of them signed, forgoing larger salaries in favor a chance to win an NBA Championship, something neither had yet accomplished in his career.
At the beginning of the 2003-04 season, with two years left on his contract at the time, O'Neal informed the team of his desire for a substantially larger extension to his contract. O'Neal remained persistently vocal about this desire, but Laker management was hesitant to meet his demands amid concerns of lack of work ethic(refusal to play at certain times), about the possibility of further injuries, and a general decline in his game as he continued to age. It is widely believed that there was also concern about O'Neal's relationship with Kobe Bryant, as the two had exchanged public barbs during the off-season, though both have come forward to deny any such occurrence. With Bryant scheduled to become a free agent at the end of that season, many believed he would not choose to remain with the Lakers in pursuit of new challenges.
The Lakers did eventually offer O'Neal a large contract in February 2004 (according to the book Madmen's Ball by Mark Heisler) under which he would have unquestionably continued to remain the highest paid player in the league, but he refused after feeling his services were not needed.
After the Lakers' loss to the Detroit Pistons in the 2004 NBA Finals, O'Neal became angered by comments made by Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak regarding O'Neal's future with the club, as well as by the departure of Lakers coach Phil Jackson due to request of Dr. Buss. O'Neal made wrongful comments indicating that he felt the team's decisions were centered around a desire to appease Bryant, to the exclusion of all other concerns, and O'Neal promptly demanded a trade. The Dallas Mavericks and their team owner Mark Cuban were extremely interested in O'Neal and were willing to make a trade with the Lakers, but Kupchak wanted Dirk Nowitzki, the Mavs' superstar, in return. Cuban refused to let go of Nowitzki and the Lakers ended trade talks with Dallas. However, Miami showed interest and slowly a trade agreement was made.
On July 14, 2004, O'Neal was officially traded to the Miami Heat for Caron Butler, Lamar Odom, Brian Grant and a first-round draft choice. Upon signing with the Heat, O'Neal declared that he would bring a championship to Miami. He claimed that one of the main reasons for wanting to be traded to Miami was because of up and coming star, Dwayne Wade. With O'Neal on board, the new-look Heat surpassed expectations, claiming the best record in the Eastern Conference. Despite being hobbled by a deep thigh bruise, O'Neal lead the Heat to the Eastern Conference Finals and a Game 7 against the defending champion Detroit Pistons, losing by a narrow margin. He also narrowly lost the 2004-05 MVP Award to Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash in one of the closest votes in NBA history.
In August, 2005, O'Neal signed an 5-year-extension with the Heat for US $100 million dollars. Supporters applauded O'Neal's willingness to take what amounted to a pay cut, and the Heat's decision to secure O'Neal's services for the long term. They contend that O'Neal was worth more than $20 million per year, particularly given that considerably less valuable players such as Jalen Rose, Allan Houston, Keith Van Horn, Steve Francis, and Stephon Marbury earn almost the same amount. Critics, however, questioned wisdom of the extension, characterizing it as overpaying an aging and often times injured player.
In the second game of the 2005-2006 season, O'Neal injured his right ankle and subsequently missed the following 18 games. Since his return O'Neal averaged a career low in minutes per game. Many critics stated that Heat coach Pat Riley correctly managed O'Neal during the season, limiting his minutes to a career low. Riley felt doing so would allow O'Neal to be healthier and fresher come playoff time. Although O'Neal averaged career (or near-career) lows in points, rebounds, and blocks, O'Neal said in an interview "Stats don't matter. I care about winning, not stats. If I score 0 points and we win I'm happy. If I score 50, 60 points, break the records, and we lose, I'm pissed off. 'Cause I knew I did something wrong. I'll have a hell of a season if I win the championship and average 20 points a game." During the 2005-2006 season, the Heat recorded only a .500 record without O'Neal in the line-up.
On April 11, 2006, Shaquille O'Neal recorded his second career triple-double against the Toronto Raptors with 15 points, 11 rebounds and a career high 10 assists.
O'Neal finished the season as the league leader in field goal percentage; he joined Wilt Chamberlain as the only two players in league history to lead the league in field goal percentage nine times.
In the 2006 NBA Playoffs, the Miami Heat would go onto win their first NBA Championship. Led by both O'Neal and star Dwayne Wade, the Heat would go on to defeat the two-time defending Eastern Conference Champion Detroit Pistons in a rematch of the 2005 Conference Finals, and then defeat the Dallas Mavericks in the 2006 NBA Finals. O'Neal put up considerably lower numbers compared to those he recorded during the 2005-2006 regular season, but to O'Neal's credit, he had twice delivered dominant games in order to close out a playoff series: a 30 point, 20 rebound effort in game 6 against the Chicago Bulls in the first round, and a 28 point, 16 rebound, 5 block effort in game 6 against the Pistons. It was O'Neal's fourth title in seven seasons, and ensured the promise of delivering an NBA championship to Miami.
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