Shaquille O’Neal missing his free throws caused a $10,000 hole in Jack Nicholson’s pockets

Shaquille O’Neal missing his free throws caused a $10,000 hole in Jack Nicholson's pockets

Shaquille O’Neal is one of the most dominant centers in NBA history, but even he had one trait that made Jack Nicholson angry.

The LA legend was the catalyst of the Lakers dynasty in the 2000s. He was the star of a team that won three titles in a row, forming a dynamic duo with Kobe Bryant.

There was nobody who could stop Shaq back in the day. He was the most dominant physical force to have ever played basketball, and he completely owned the paint.

Shaq was a menace on both sides of the ball. He could control the paint with his size, deterring anyone who dared to enter. We haven’t seen anyone dominant the inside game quite like Shaq since his glory days. Back then, he was an absolute beast to watch.

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Shaquille O’Neal had Jack Nicholson almost evicted from a game

If there was any weakness you could find in Shaq’s game, it was his free throws.

The biggest thing he could never figure out how to do was shoot free throws.

Over his career, Shaq missed 5,317 free throws, at a rate of about 4.4 misses per game. His free throw percentage was abysmally low at 52.7%.

In 2003, Nicholson lost his cool over this weakness. He was watching a Lakers game, when he suddenly started yelling at a referee because Shaq had reached his third foul.

The ‘hack-a-Shaq’ technique was clearly on, and the $400 million worth actor didn’t want any part of it.

Nicholson had probably paid the average price for courtside tickets, which can go up to $10,000, and he almost lost all that money.

“I pay a lot of money for this seat,” he yelled. “This is the NBA, you can’t tell me to sit down.”

Refs stated that if he had walked out on to the court, they would have had to remove him from the arena.

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Post Edited By: Ashish Priyadarshi
Los Angeles Lakers NBA Shaquille O'Neal

About the author

Ashish Priyadarshi

Ashish Priyadarshi is The SportsRush's content manager and editor. Ashish freelanced for 1 year in the NFL division before taking on an editorial role in the company. He then tacked on managing content while adding on a writing role in the NBA division. Ashish has been closely following the NFL and NBA since the 2012 season when the Patriots lost the Super Bowl and Derrick Rose was at the height of his powers. Since then, Ashish has focused on honing his knowledge for both leagues in, even writing crossover pieces. In his free time, Ashish is an avid basketball player, he loves to watch movies and TV shows, immersing himself in the cinematic world. Ashish studies computer science and data science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and would love to mesh his love for sports with his technical skills.

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