It’s a sad truth of being a sports fan that eventually, the superpowers that made our favorite athletes great fade away. Father Time is undefeated for a reason, and nobody is immune to his effects. That includes Shaquille O’Neal, arguably the most physically imposing basketball player of all time.
Advertisement
Shaq was unlike anyone basketball fans had seen before, and though we’ve been blessed to watch the likes of Nikola Jokic since, nobody has ever seen anyone with the blend of raw power and shocking athleticism that Shaq brought to the table.
Shaq’s signature play was the slam dunk. In fact, he’s without a doubt the most ferocious dunker in history, as the broken backboards and posterized centers he left in his wake can attest to.
In a recent interview, Shaq has however confessed that he can’t dunk anymore. If there’s ever a thing that will make you dwell on your own mortality, there it is. The guy who once threw down the most disrespectful dunk in history (sorry Chris Dudley) can no longer do the very thing that made him so special.
View this post on Instagram
Officially, Shaq is the second-most prolific dunker of all-time behind Dwight Howard (he’s credited with 2,626 dunks compared to Howard’s 2,950), but since dunks weren’t tracked until 1996 (four years into Shaq’s career), it can be extrapolated that he’s the real dunk king by far.
Shaq is 53 years of age and had hip replacement surgery over two years ago, which no doubt has contributed to the end of his dunking career.
Shaq can no longer get up, but he can still throw down
Just because he can’t get off the ground the way he used to doesn’t mean that Shaq is completely done with dunking. He still verbally dunks on people all the time, whether it’s on Inside the NBA or on one of his many podcast appearances.
Shaq isn’t afraid to tell it like it is, and frequently goes after guys like Rudy Gobert, whom he once called “the worst player of all time.” He also has said that Ben Simmons should be arrested for robbery.
Now that Inside the NBA is moving to ESPN, some people are wondering if Shaq will still bring the heat in quite the same way. Don’t expect him to pull any punches, because once a dunker, always a dunker.
