Shaquille O’Neal’s Teammate Once Tried to Dunk on him Wearing his Size 22 Shoes in the NBA All-Star Dunk Contest Before Failing Miserably 

The NBA All-Star weekend is here and you can bet we will be pulling out an iconic list of moments. And while our archives are chock full of them, this time, we decided to focus on one of the legends, Shaquille O’Neal. Or, one of his teammates rather.

Shaq has always been a big name for the NBA. He is larger than life, and the league was sure to capitalize on it. Each year, he shows up to the All-star weekend without fail.

Without him, it would feel empty. And in his heyday, he was the star attraction. Of course, who wouldn’t want to see the giant 7-foot-tall behemoth dunk down empty lanes?

And it is his gravitas that made a teammate want to try out something different. Alas, it never happened.

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How Darrell Armstrong failed miserably and robbed us of an iconic dunk over Shaquille O’Neal

The Orlando Magic teammates, Darrell Armstrong, and Shaquille O’Neal had a deal. They wanted to do an iconic dunk. Throughout the 1996 NBA All-Star weekend, there were murmurs about a dunk featuring Shaq and Darrell.

But instead of getting a good score to qualify for the finals, Darrell instead performed a layup in a dunk contest. Yes, a layup. It remains one of the contest’s most mind-boggling bloopers.

DID YOU KNOW: Darrell Armstrong planned to dunk in @SHAQ‘s size 22 shoes in the ’96 Slam Dunk Contest? 🤣 #NBAAllStar @OrlandoMagic pic.twitter.com/gBZFkYwPBw

— No Dunks (@NoDunksInc) February 16, 2023

So the original plan was to wear Shaq’s incredibly big size 22 shoes and dunk. But what’s more, Darrell wanted to do the dunk by jumping over Shaquille O’Neal himself.

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The greatest blooper in the history of the NBA All-Star dunk contest?

Well, the dunk contest has been controversial for a lot of reasons. From awarding random scores to deserving dunkers to missing them altogether.

But none are perhaps more iconic than Darrell Armstrong’s layup. Forget a simple run and dunk. The Orlando Magic player literally performed a layup.

Doesn’t get more bizarre than that. And while we may have been robbed of a weird and memorable dunk featuring a 7-foot Shaq, that blooper will forever remain etched in our heads.

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