Despite his retirement from the NBA back in 2011, Shaquille O’Neal has never shied away from flaunting his prowess as a former player. Shaq made no exception this time around as he recently flexed his dominance as a 7’1 center on Instagram. He promoted a clip from the 1996 NBA All-Star game, reminding the followers of his authority on the court during his younger days.
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With the caption, “Shaq dominating the 1996 NBA All-Star Game,” it captured the former Orlando Magic star’s highlights from the event. During the entirety of the match, Diesel continued to penetrate through the paint as he terrorized his opponents on February 11, 1996. Banking on his abilities, his Eastern Conference team gathered points in quick succession as his teammates continued to pass him the ball near the basket.
The New Jersey-born certainly enjoyed his fourth All-Star game as he displayed a variety of his skills against a few of the greatest centers of all time. One such name on that list included then San Antonio Spurs talisman David Robinson as the 15x All-Star frustrated him throughout. After using post moves against the 1995 MVP, the 1993 ROTY slam dunked on him in one particular possession. The highlights video documented that moment wonderfully as Shaq had previously used it to his benefit.
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His methods paid off on the court as the East won 129-118 on that night. As the starting center for his side, O’Neal registered the stat line of 25-10-1 in his 28 minutes of gameplay. Despite losing out on the All-Star MVP award to Michael Jordan, his performance remained engraved in the memories of the viewers.
Shaquille O’Neal is an untiring advocate of his 1996 All-Star display
In the recent past, Shaq has utilized the eye-catching moments of his performance on numerous occasions to get a handful of his points across. A couple of days ago, the 4x champion shed light on a ‘what-if’ situation of playing with Jordan in the regular season through this footage. In the 1996 event, the duo teamed up to put on a show on Michael’s first All-Star game since his comeback from first retirement.
Thus, the overall significance of the night is hard to write off. Shaq continued to showcase a similar sort of prowess in All-Star games later on in his career too. With three MVPs in these events, he ranks joint second on the list of the highest MVPs in All-Star games.
So, Shaq’s actions are backed by his past glory. After all, in this fast-paced NBA life, the new-age followers tend to neglect the superstars of previous generations. The 2000 MVP just ensures that it is not the case with him.
