It’s surprising to hear someone as dominant as Shaquille O’Neal admit that there was a team he faced in his time in the NBA that actually gave him some trouble. However, it wasn’t any of the teams he faced in the Finals. It was the Utah Jazz; a team that beat them in the 1997 WCSF and swept them in the 1998 WCF. Shaq delved into reasons that were both on and off the court.
Advertisement
A fan asked Shaq to name the team that was the hardest to face during the live episode of “The Big Podcast”. Without skipping a beat, he would go on to give bestow this honor upon the Jazz, with a major reason being the absence of any nightlife in the city.
“There was no nightlife… If I go to the room and stay in the room all day, I was going to have a terrible game. I need to hit the club and hookah bar or something. But Utah, ain’t sh*t to do in Utah. So I would always have I would always have a terrible game,” O’Neal disclosed.
The Big Aristotle had an extroverted personality even during his playing days. He’d often go to parties even on the nights before games. Hence, being forced to stay in his room did have an ill effect on the center’s psyche and would lead to a lackluster performance on the court.
The 7ft 1” star played faced off against the Utah Jazz on 50 different instances, averaging 22.8 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 2.2 assists. This stat line doesn’t appear to be underwhelming. However, all of these figures are a tad bit lesser than his career averages – 23.7 points, 10.9 rebounds, and 2.5 assists.
The boring nightlife was evidently harmful to Shaq’s performance. Additionally, going up against the All-Star duo of John Stockton and Karl Malone didn’t make things any easier for him.
The Stockton-Malone pairing was too lethal for Shaq
The Utah Jazz’s John Stockton-Karl Malone pairing was the most lethal one-two punch in the NBA for a large part of the 1990s. The two always seemed to be on the same page, feeding off one another. Their constant pick-and-rolls would wear teams down. Shaq dreaded facing them too.
“The John Stockton and Karl Malone pick and roll – most unstoppable play,” Shaq said during this same podcast.
Stockton and Malone would engage in a high pick-and-roll. Malone would set a screen way beyond the three-point line. With the virtue of his speed, he was able to outpace other big men when making his way to the paint.
Shaq had to make his way towards the three-point line due to Stockton’s long-range shooting capabilities. This would often result in Malone being left unguarded when he rolled in the paint.
The Jazz duo terrorized the league on a nightly basis by mastering this simple move. However, they weren’t ever able to get their hands on the elusive Larry O’Brien Trophy. But this did result in Stockton becoming the all-time assists leader. Whereas, Malone retired as one of the top scorers in NBA history with 36,928 regular season points.
