“Shaquille O’Neal choked out his Suns teammate for being selfish”: Grant Hill recounts the time the Lakers legend put a guard to sleep while they were fighting for a Playoff berth

Shaquille O’Neal once put his Suns teammate in chokehold to the point where he passed out because he wouldn’t pass Shaq the ball. 

Shaquille O’Neal during his playing days was most certainly an unhinged force both on and off the court. The ‘Big Aristotle’ was the most dominant player to have stepped foot on NBA hardwood and so him wanting the ball to get his team a bucket makes sense, even if he was in the latter stages of his career. 

His eight years with the Los Angeles Lakers were marred with internal disputes involving Kobe Bryant that stemmed from the fact that the guard was much too selfish and a ball-hog. However, Shaq did acknowledge recently that he would play up his beef with Kobe as a marketing tool to keep his name in the news cycle at all times.

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So, it’s fair to say that Shaquille O’Neal has dealt with his fair share of players who are reluctant to pass him the ball as they believe they can get a bucket more efficiently over the 4x champ. 

Shaquille O’Neal once choked out his Suns teammate as they were fighting for a Playoff berth. 

Shaquille O’Neal on the Phoenix Suns was certainly not the MVP-caliber player he once was during the Lakers 3-peat era. Even so, he did average 18 and 8 while shooting a career high, 61% from inside the arc in his second season with the Suns. Phoenix however, could not get past the first round the season prior. 

The chemistry was just a bit off this season for the Suns and this became evident when Shaquille O’Neal choked out Suns guard, Gordan Giricek, before a game because of the simple fact that Giricek wasn’t passing him the ball. 

Gordan was a great shooter from beyond the arc from Croatia but was hesitant on several occasions to pass the ball inside to Shaq. This caused the Lakers legend to lose it in the locker room and put the sharpshooting guard in a sleeper hold, eventually leading to him passing out.

 

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Giricek did eventually wake up but it’s safe to say that the Phoenix Suns weren’t all too tight off the court after this incident took place. They would go on to miss the Playoffs entirely the following season.