Amid Nikola Jokic’s Courtside Scuffle Fiasco, 350 lbs Shaquille O’Neal’s ‘Death-Inducing’ Loose Ball Save Comes To Fore

Imagine a 7ft tall NBA center coming towards you to get the loose ball while also carrying 350 lbs. Nikola Jokic is 6ft 11’ big, weighing around 280 pounds, who just casually walked to the sideline in Phoenix to take the ball away from Mat Ishbia and gave him a slight elbow doing that. Shaquille O’Neal though, once ran and dove into the third row at the Footprint Center, leaving the fans scared to death.

There is nobody as big, strong, and agile as The Diesel. He played in the league for 19 years, shuffling around 300 pounds in his rookie season to 350 and even 400 pounds at the peak of his dominance. Shaq was an unstoppable force of nature who tore top defenses apart for fun.

However, sometimes even fans got the taste of the fear that players who played in the league from 1992 to 2011 went through, watching that humongous beast running at them.

Shaquille O’Neal had multiple hustle plays where he dove to the stands

As the Nikola Jokic-Mat Ishbia fiasco was running the rounds of the internet, Shaq’s old video of almost breaking a Suns fan into pieces resurfaced on NBA Reddit. Have a look at it in the following embed.

In 2009 Shaq plunged into the crowd for a loose ball and the refs stopped the live play to make sure the fans (and Shaq) are alright.
by u/morcic in nba

That seat being empty was a good thing for the NBA and Shaq. We cannot imagine how many bones would have been broken if somebody was sitting on that seat.

Imagine what would have happened if he didn’t have the athleticism to jump over 2-3 rows, those kids would have been crushed. But that wasn’t the only time Shaquille O’Neal saved lives by jumping over people.

On multiple occasions in his career, while putting in some extra effort and showing off some hustle, he jumped over fans, sometimes 2–3 rows into the stands and sometimes even diving into the concrete, head first. Just take a look at the YouTube clip by ‘Big Diesel‘ below to find out how just some of those times turned out.

That man was indeed crazy. His teammates wanted no part of him, even if it meant the Big Aristotle would injure himself. Fortunately, it’s safe to say that he never injured others with those efforts.

Shaq’s incredible career

His hustle was never just for the camera. The 15x All-Star had one of the most decorated NBA careers of all time because of his will and desire to be the greatest to ever do it.

Since his early years in Orlando, he went toe-to-toe against some absolute legends of the game and gave them a run for their money on several occasions. He didn’t spare even the Michael Jordan-led Bulls of the mid-90s.

Within the first 10 years of his career, he had led his side to 3 NBA championships, collecting 3 Finals MVPs and a regular-season MVP along the way.

Despite a steep fall in form later in his career, Shaq finished with 4 championships and a career average of 23.7 points, 10.3 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks per game.

About the author

Akash Murty

An Electrical and Electronics Engineer by degree, Akash Murty is an NBA Editor at The SportsRush. Previously a Software Engineer, Murty couldn’t keep himself away from sports, and his knack for writing and putting his opinion forward brought him to the TSR. A big Soccer enthusiast, his interest in basketball developed late, as he got access to a hoop for the first time at 17. Following this, he started watching basketball at the 2012 Olympics, which transitioned to NBA, and he became a fan of the game as he watched LeBron James dominate the league. Him being an avid learner of the game and ritually following the league for around a decade, he now writes articles ranging from throwbacks, and live game reports, to gossip. LA Lakers are his favourite basketball team, while Chelsea has his heart in football. He also likes travelling, reading fiction, and sometimes cooking.

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