Lakers icon Shaquille O’Neal names the four all-time greats who he was absolutely terrified playing against, including Michael Jordan.
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Shaquille O’Neal is considered to be one of the greatest players in NBA history. Being one of the most dominant athletes in league history, Shaq was a force to reckon with. Being a 7-foot-1 beast, O’Neal managed to revolutionise how the centre position is played.
The Diesel has one of the most decorated resumes in league history. Being a 4-time champion, 15-time All-Star, league MVP and Hall-Of-Famer, there is virtually no accolade that Shaq didn’t achieve in his illustrious 19-year career. With his body type, the Lakers legend was a commanding force down in the post, on both ends of the floors.
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No player in their right minds would even attempt to take a charge from the 325-pound barbarian. In fact, some of the league’s superstars were even scared of guarding the 2-time scoring champ.
Shaq was definitely an intimidating character. Even though it might seem a bit hard to believe, there were a few players who O’Neal was absolutely terrified to play against.
“I was terrified to play against MJ, Ewing, Dominique and David Robinson”: Shaquille O’Neal
There must have been several players who still must be getting nightmares, guarding the wrath of Shaquille O’Neal. However, in a recent interview, Shaq revealed the players who managed to scare him on the court. In a recent interview episode of his “The Big Podcast”, Shaq disclosed:
“I mentioned this a couple years a couple months ago about when I was playing against Jordan how terrified I was. There was only a couple players that when I first went up against, I was terrified.
“Patrick Ewing, terrified because I grew up watching him because you know he knows I’m from New Jersey, I had a pair of orange and blue Ewings. I actually was terrified of Mike. Man, I was terrified of getting dunked on by Dominique, and I was terrified of David Robinson.”
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Shaq did have a pretty tough battle against all these four all-time greats. While facing his fears and playing against them, O’Neal did manage to take a few learnings from their games and incorporated into his own. Today, Shaquille O’Neal has retired as an all-time great and is considered the greatest centre in the sport’s history.
