One of the most iconic plays of Shaquille O’Neal‘s incredible career was his trademark dunk in Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference Finals against the Portland Trail Blazers. On Friday, the three-time Finals MVP shared a video of that iconic moment on his Instagram stories.
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In Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, the Lakers trailed by 13 entering the fourth quarter. O’Neal had a rare off-game and had only nine points through three quarters. The team needed a massive 12 minutes from O’Neal and guard Kobe Bryant, and the duo did not fail their team. Both stars scored nine points each in the fourth quarter alone, while sixth-man Robert Horry and reliable bench player Brian Shaw scored six a-piece to help the Lakers mount a magical comeback.
The highlight of the comeback was Bryant’s alley-oop and O’Neal’s vicious dunk to put the Lakers up by six with only 41.9 seconds left in the game. The Lakers went on to dominantly outscore the Trail Blazers 31-13 in the fourth quarter and won 89-84 to head to their first NBA Finals in nine years.
Bryant and O’Neal led the Lakers to a 4-2 win over the Indiana Pacers in the 2000 Finals, ending the franchise’s 12-year wait for an NBA title. They wouldn’t have to wait long for their championship from there, as Bryant and O’Neal led to two more title wins in the next two years to three-peat as NBA champions.
To this day, the play by Shaq and Kobe remains one of the most iconic of all time, a status that O’Neal’s facial expression also very much contributed to. Jokes aside, the difficulty of the play itself, when it came to be, and Bryant being the one to deliver it to be ‘The Diesel’ holds some serious water. Especially given the fact that this play was a dead giveaway to the historic run that was to come, it will likely continue to be one of the NBA’s most celebrated plays for a long time.
Shaquille O’Neal reveals the story of two-year-old son Shareef’s inspiring message
After Shaquille O’Neal converted Kobe Bryant’s alley-oop into an iconic dunk, the camera panned to the Lakers superstar pointing with glee toward the crowd. For years, the identity of the person, or people, that O’Neal was pointing at was unknown. However, during an appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel Show in 2019, the four-time NBA champion revealed he was pointing at his two-year-old son Shareef. He said:
“He was 2 yrs old, I didn’t even know he could talk, he comes to me & he says “Daddy win.” That’s the first thing he ever said to me. I’m like, you can talk?.. Kobe throws me the great lob, I catch it, then I was like “I won baby.” That was for him.”
Months after his 19th birthday, Shareef O’Neal tattooed the moment on his leg.
Bryant and O’Neal are remembered as one of, if not the greatest duo in NBA history. Their incredible chemistry on the court helped the Lakers emphatically win three straight NBA titles.
It almost faltered before it started back in 2000 against the Trail Blazers in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals. However, in the end, the team’s grit shined through to inspire not just a comeback that gave the team all the momentum in the world to create history.
