Shaquille O’Neal is among the most menacing scorers in NBA history. The dominant center needed only one season before he established himself as one of the most unstoppable scorers in the league. O’Neal scored over 40 points 49 times in his career, and in six of those, he did not turn the ball over even once. Only Michael Jordan has more 40-point games with no turnover than the former Los Angeles Lakers superstar. He shared that impressive stat on his Instagram account:
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Eighteen players have more 40-point games than O’Neal in NBA history. However, only Jordan, who ranks second on the list with 173 40-point games, ranks above Shaq in doing so without any turnovers. O’Neal’s ability to be a dominant scorer and ability to be efficient while doing so is often underrated. In a 10-season stretch between 1993 and 2003, O’Neal averaged 27.9 points per game. He was also efficient during this span, averaging over 57% from the field.
Michael Jordan’s best 10-year scoring stretch saw him average 34.8 points, but he shot 50.6% from the field, well below O’Neal’s efficiency. He also did not share the ball with a co-star as O’Neal did. In comparison, the center played alongside Penny Hardaway and Kobe Bryant during his best 10-year scoring stretch.
Jordan and O’Neal are two of the finest competitors in NBA history. The former has the most Finals MVPs in NBA history, while the latter trails only Jordan and LeBron James. However, Jordan and O’Neal are the only two players to win the award in three straight seasons, showing nobody was operating on their level in the primes.
Shaquille O’Neal vs. Michael Jordan: A Game 7 Masterpiece that never happened
That wasn’t the first time Shaquille O’Neal has shared a post where he and Michael Jordan appeared. Yesterday, he shared a clip of the duo playing 1-on-1 in a pregame warmup before the 1996 NBA All-Star game.
O’Neal was in his element and casually dominated Jordan. He used his superior size to force the six-time Finals MVP to take tough shots while using his nimble footwork to get easy buckets.
The clip O’Neal shared was captioned, “A Game 7 featuring [Michael] Jordan and Shaq would be a must-watch masterpiece.” It undoubtedly would have been a hotly contested battle between two of the best Game 7 performers in NBA history.
Jordan famously has never played a Game 7 in the NBA Finals. However, he has featured in three in the earlier rounds of the playoffs during his career. In three career Game 7 matches, Jordan averaged 33.7 points, 7.7 rebounds, and seven assists. O’Neal played in four Game 7s in his career and averaged 26.5 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 2.5 assists. One of the most iconic moments of his career came in a Game 7. The Lakers mounted a 15-point fourth-quarter comeback in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals in 2000, with O’Neal’s emphatic dunk putting the exclamation mark on an incredible game.
Unfortunately for the fans, Jordan and O’Neal never competed against each other in a Game 7. It almost happened in the 1995 Eastern Conference semifinals. The Magic led 3-2 heading into Game 6 at the United Center in Chicago. Jordan had one of his poorest playoff games, scoring 24 points on 19 shots. Orlando, on the back of O’Neal’s 27 points, 13 rebounds, and four assists, beat the Bulls 108-102 and booked their berth in the Eastern Conference Finals.
The following season, O’Neal and the Magic got a taste of Jordan’s true greatness, as the Bulls swept Orlando 4-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals en route to their fourth NBA title. A Game 7 between Jordan and O’Neal was never meant to be, but it’s still intriguing to think about the possibility.
