Shaquille O’Neal is least arguably, the most dominant basketball player to ever walk the hardwood. In his prime, the 7ft 1’ center could not be stopped even by the greatest defenders in the game like Hakeem Olajuwon and Dikembe Mutombo. However, Dennis Rodman believed he outdid O’Neal in his time with the Bulls, which, it looks like, didn’t sit well with the former Lakers juggernaut. Shaq sent that message through his IG story.
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After getting eliminated at the hands of O’Neal’s Magic in the 1995 Playoffs, Michael Jordan and Co recruited Dennis the Menace to get themselves back into the glory days.
They did so in a terrific fashion by winning championships in Rodman’s first three out of four years with the franchise. And The Worm had a major role in those teams, being the go-to guy to defend the opposition’s best players, irrespective of their size or position. And every so often it would be players like The Big Aristotle, who couldn’t be stopped.
Shaquille O’Neal shares his highlight reel against Dennis Rodman to assert dominance
In the latest string of Instagram stories, Shaquille O’Neal came up with a highlight reel of him scoring over the notorious 6ft 7’ forward who was one of the league’s best defenders and also the leading rebounder for 7-straight years between 1992 and 1998.
This must have been in response to a Rodman belief, where he claimed to have limited O’Neal to 0 points in a game played between the Bulls and the Lakers in 1996.
Not exactly 0, but Rodman was effective in limiting Shaq to 4 points when he was guarding him in the defending champions’ 129-123 victory over the new-look Lakers team.
Dennis might have been half a foot shorter than Shaq, but the heart with which he played, allowed his teams to dominate the latter’s team throughout their careers. Rodman went head to head against the 3x Finals MVP 16 times. In those games, O’Neal could win just 3, and none of them came in the Playoffs. Astonishing!
Shaq’s dominance changed the game
The LSU big man, who came into the league in 1992, contributed a lot to some rules changes in the NBA, by the time he left in 2011. However, how Shaq changed the course of every individual game he played in his 19-year career, was also quite incredible.
Apart from Hack-a-Shaq from the great Gregg Popovich, there was no coach in the NBA who would have a pitch-perfect plan to stop O’Neal and see it work out for more than one play.
The man was that good. And seeing how impactful Rodman was against him, it’s safe to say, we will never see anybody like him if we are not going to see a Shaquille O’Neal.
