Hours After Welcoming Nikola Jokic to the ‘Big Man Alliance,’ Shaquille O’Neal Pits His 2002 Finals MVP Stats Against Joker’s 2023 Numbers

Akash Murty | 14/06/2023
Hours After Welcoming Nikola Jokic to the ‘Big Man Alliance,’ Shaquille O’Neal Pits His 2002 Finals MVP Stats Against Joker’s 2023 Numbers

Nikola Jokic led the Denver Nuggets to their first championship in franchise history of 47 years, in the recently concluded NBA Finals. After missing out on what would have been his 3rd consecutive MVP award, the Serbian giant continued his brilliance of the regular season, where he led the Nuggets to finish as the best in the West. He became the first big man since Shaquille O’Neal (in 2002) to win Finals MVP. After the Nuggets’ win over the Heat on Monday, ‘The Big Aristotle’ welcomed ‘The Joker’ into the big man alliance that includes some of the greatest bigs of all time apart from him. However, within hours of doing so, he also shared his statistics from the ’02 Finals in a side-by-side comparison with Jokic’s 2023 numbers.

Shaquille O’Neal of 2001-02 compared to 2022-23 Nikola Jokic

In the 2001-02 season, a 2x Finals MVP, Shaquille O’Neal, led the Los Angeles Lakers to the NBA Finals averaging 28.5 points, 12.6 rebounds, and 2.8 assists in 19 games in the tournament, upping his ante in the four games of the Finals. He shared his Finals numbers comparing it with Jokic’s recently on his Instagram. You can find the screenshot of the same in the tweet by @NBACelebsUpdate below

Nikola Jokic averaged 30 points, 13.5 rebounds, 9.5 assists, 1.1 steals, and a block per game in the 20 post-season games. His numbers were already too good to improve significantly in the 5 Finals games, but he did.

Both the Finals MVPs’ runs were iconic for their teams. Both teams lost just 4 games in their post-season. And the biggest similarity of all was, both O’Neal and Jokic had young and hungry 2-guards playing behind them who shared the bulk of scoring responsibility with them. Really, there was no way either of these big men was winning these championships without Kobe Bryant and Jamal Murray.

The Big Man Alliance

Shaq welcomed The Joker to a small club that consists of the greatest big men of the NBA, including himself, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, and David Robinson. The big man alliance. Take a look at Shaquille O’Neal’s Instagram post on the topic below.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by DR. SHAQUILLE O’NEAL Ed.D. (@shaq)

It’s one of the biggest U-turns Shaq had to take as an analyst as he had to go from calling the Serbian international ‘Slavic Lasagna’ to the best player in the league in just a few months time.

Post Edited By: Tonoy Sengupta
Nikola Jokic Shaquille O'Neal

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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