Shaquille O’Neal was a menace for defenses throughout his career. Even the greats of the sport found it difficult to contain the 7’1 center, as he often dunked his way through any defensive scheme. Being known as “one of the hardest dunkers” of all time, Shaq was rarely on the receiving end of ferocious dunks.
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In fact, Shaq has kept an exact count of the number of times he has been dunked on. During an interview, the Lakers Legend would reveal,
” I always take pride in saying 20 years, only got dunked on three times – Derrick Coleman, Michael Jordan, and Tim Perry… I always wanted to take pride in not getting dunked on.”
That being said, Shaq got dunked on thrice during this All-Star Weekend. The first two dunks happened during the 2024 All-Star Dunk Contest. Miami Heat’s, Jamie Jacques Jr. was the first to call on Shaq for his dunk. The Heat rookie jumped over Shaq, as he slammed home his first dunk for the night.
Taking a page out of Jacques’ book, Mac McClung also decided to use O’Neal as a prop for his dunk. The 2023 Dunk Champion came prepared, as he handed O’Neal a Gate City jersey (McClung’s High School jersey). The back-to-back champion would end up going between the legs, jumping over Shaq, as he put down some of the best dunks of the competition.
The final dunk of the weekend would come from none other than Vince Carter himself. While shooting an episode of ‘Inside the NBA’, Carter attempted a sneaky dunk on Shaq. The 7’1 center, unfortunately, got spooked, as he barely avoided getting dunked on.
Shaquille O’Neal doesn’t like getting dunked on
Shaquille O’Neal was a bully on the hardwood and enjoyed being feared. The Lakers Legend was a huge stickler for ‘respect’ and didn’t enjoy being played with. He often laid people out if they tried to do anything fancy against him. The Diesel even took great pride in the fact that he had seldom been dunked on. And when Vince Carter tried to dunk on him, in 1999, the result wasn’t exactly pretty.
The Lakers were hosting the Raptors at home, and the score was 57-62 in the third. Carter drove to the cup, as he took off slightly before the baseline. Coming in from the left side, Vince was met at the rim by Shaq, who fouled the Raptors guard. He would fall hip first on the floor, causing many to speculate if the Raptors star would even get up.
But O’Neal didn’t have any specific animosity against Carter, it was just something that O’Neal did to anyone who tried to dunk on him. Even NBA legend Baron Davis would attempt to dunk on Shaq once. Recalling the incident, Davis said,
” I tried to dunk on Shaq. He said ‘Bro, if you ever do that again, I’m gonna break your f**king legs.'”
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From the looks of it, no one has managed to put O’Neal on a poster during his entire career. Being over 7’1 and 300 pounds, Shaq makes for a difficult target to dunk.
