Shaquille O’Neal has been labeled by many, including himself, as the Most Dominant Player Ever(MDE), and for good reasons. While the big man’s range was infamous for being unreliable from outside the paint, his strength and tenacity within the arc were so high that he would routinely make NBA players look like amateurs. However, the Lakers legend recently uncovered a clip from his Team USA stint, where he can be seen dominating Scottie Pippen in a 1v1 game, before sinking some smooth mid-range jumpers. With the FIBA Basketball World Cup right around the corner, Shaq recently bragged about this clip to his 31,900,000 IG followers, claiming he could play in any era of the NBA.
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Shaquille O’Neal appeared in just two International tournaments for the USA. His first appearance was in the 1994 FIBA World Cup, while the second was in the 1996 Olympics. During both these tournaments, Team USA was beyond dominant and crushed all its competition. In those days, it was a bit of a done deal that the country would win gold, from the very start of the tournament. And sure enough, that is exactly what they did in both tournaments.
Shaquille O’Neal proves he could have played in today’s NBA with ease
As mentioned previously, Shaquille O’Neal wasn’t known for his silky smooth jump shot. On the contrary, he was a man who used his grown-man strength to bully his opponents in the paint before throwing down rim-rattling slams. However, as it turns out, some details were overlooked here by the NBA community. Reminding every on-looker of that fact, Shaq posted the following clip on Instagram.
The caption of the post read:
“No way Shaq played in the era. Yeah right, #MDE coulda played in any era”
While there will be many who will look to discredit the big man’s statement, it is highly likely that he is right. If Shaq played today, all he’d need to do is make sure he was healthy and keep his weight in check. If he did that, there would be no telling how far he’d go.
Shaq believes he could’ve locked up the big men of today
O’Neal was no stranger to making some of the greatest big men of all time look lost on the basketball court. During his prime, ‘the Big Diesel’ would routinely lock up players like Hakeem Olajuwon and David Robinson, while making it look a bit too easy.
Quite recently, Shaq would see an Instagram post that claimed that Joel Embiid would embarrass even a prime Shaquille O’Neal, a post that came after Shaq’s criticism of the player. And as one might expect, Shaq didn’t take it kindly. Read all the details of what happened next here.
