Shaquille O’Neal was one of the most dominant athletes in all of sports. But the Diesel didn’t get to that spot without making a few enemies. In fact, having a rival is what fueled the four-time NBA Champion the most. He once made up a story about David Robinson just so he could have a reason to play hard against The Admiral.
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One man that Shaq famously beefed with in the league was Arvydas Sabonis. The European legend was drafted into the NBA in 1986, but he wasn’t able to play for political reasons until 1995, when he joined the team that drafted him, the Blazers.
Well, Shaq didn’t care too much for Sabonis when he arrived and made it his mission to slaughter him. He opened up about this one-sided feud during a recent episode of his Big Podcast.
“This is why I had beef with Sabonis. I saw what he did to David Robinson in the 84 Olympics. So I always had respect for him,” Shaq began. “Me and Jerome go to a trip to Argentina for Reebok. I met him, and he wasn’t very nice.”
Shaq later claimed that Sabonis trash-talked him when he was there, but didn’t retaliate because he was overseas and figured they would never get a chance to play against one another.
“But then when I found out he was coming to play in the NBA,” revealed O’Neal. “I looked up at Jerome and was like that’s the motherf***er that was talking sh** in Argentina, I’mma kill this motherf***er every everytime.”
And kill him he did. The duo played against each other 39 times in the NBA, including regular season and the playoffs. Breaking down those stats, Shaq outscored Sabonis in every category. He averaged 28 PPG to Sabonis’s 10. He averaged 12.2 rebounds to Sabonis’s 6, and he had nearly 2 more blocks per game than the big European.
It’s a pretty funny reason for Shaq to be mad at someone, but it’s also very fitting of his character. However, it should be known that Robinson and Sabonis never played against each other in the 1984 Olympics. Russia, where Sabonis was from, boycotted those games.
The Diesel must have been referring to either the 1986 FIBA World Championship, or the 1988 or 1992 Olympic Games.
It’s also worth noting, for context, that the Sabonis that Shaq faced was very different from the one he saw on TV. Since he made his NBA debut 9 years after being drafted, injuries had already ravaged his body, and he had lost a lot of what made him such a fearsome center.
No matter when it was, Shaq’s aggression at the time now makes for a fun basketball story, adding to his laundry list of fun basketball stories. Maybe one day, Sabonis can give his thoughts on the situation.
