Hakeem Olajuwon knocked down a couple 3s against Shaquille O’Neal immediately after O’Neal airballed one from beyond the arc.
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Shaquille O’Neal and Hakeem Olajuwon are two NBA legends who had an extremely underrated rivalry in the mid-90s that extended a bit into the late 90s as well. The height of their rivalry was most definitely during the 1995 NBA Finals when Hakeem’s Rockets swept Shaq’s Orlando Magic, with the former averaging an absurd 32 and 12 against him.
The 0-4 Finals loss stung so badly for Shaquille O’Neal that he ended up challenging the Rockets legend to a one-on-one matchup for a whopping $1 million. This event was even picked up by Taco Bell and had a promo shot for it as well. Sadly, the event was shut down due to Olajuwon suffering a minor injury the day before the game.
The two shared some incredible moments together on NBA hardwood as well; so many that there are a couple great ones that slip right under the radar.
Shaquille O’Neal gets ‘taught’ on how to shoot 3s by Hakeem Olajuwon.
Shaquille O’Neal may have been the most dominant force the league had seen since Wilt Chamberlain in the 1960s but he wasn’t without his flaws. For starters, he was an abysmal 3-point shooter. He made merely one shot from beyond the arc during his 19 year long career, after attempting just 22 of them over that span.
On several occasions, when going up against Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaq happened to attempt a few shots from the perimeter. He of course, missed them all but Hakeem would inexplicably come back down the floor the very next play and knock down a 3, as if to show the Lakers legend that he could do something that he couldn’t.
Hakeem wasn’t all too much of a 3-point shooter either as he made 25 of them during his career, while attempting 124 of them. Safe to say that Shaquille O’Neal could not match up against the 2x champ from that area on the floor.
