“The Knicks are done.” Shaquille O’Neal’s proclamation soon after the Boston Celtics blew out the New York Knicks 132-109 on opening night of the NBA season sounds premature and harsh, doesn’t it? But the big man had his justifications.
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Shaq reasoned that the off-season moves sapped New York of its toughness, and rebounding game, which were their hallmarks. Those were the facets which made playing against them challenging for O’Neal, who considers the Knicks as his favorite opponents.
“Probably the Knicks. Because the Knicks beat you up physically so, if you can handle what the Knicks were doing, you could pretty much take physicality from any team,” the four-time NBA champion said on Mexican Roberto Martinez’s podcast CREATIVO.
Shaq used to love asserting his physical dominance over the opposition. Coming from him that the Knicks were formidable at ‘beating their opponents up’ just makes one wonder just how tough they really were.
Even though the Knicks played .500 basketball once during the 2000s, their roster had great defensive talents like Latrell Sprewell, Marcus Camby, and Kurt Thomas.
Despite Sprewell and Camby’s short stints in New York — five years each — O’Neal remembers them for their hard-nosed style of play. When asked about how he responded to the Knicks’ physicality during that era, O’Neal shared that he just upped his own physicality.
“But if a guy bows you in the chest, you gotta bow him in the face. Guy bows you in the face, you gotta bow him in the nose and break it. One up it,” the 2000 NBA MVP explained.
The tough New York O’Neal faced in the early part of his career had his idol in the ranks, Patrick Ewing. This did lead to some interesting battles.
Shaq put respect aside and dominated Ewing
O’Neal had a lot of respect and admiration for Ewing and even wore #33 in his honor while at LSU. After joining the NBA, he took on Ewing 26 times. The fact that Ewing is tied for third place with Kevin Garnett on the list of people who has blocked Shaq’s shot the most, shows how contested the match-ups were.
A few of those blocks came on February 28, 1995, when the Orlando Magic hosted the Knicks. A then-33-year-old Ewing dropped 32 points, 15 rebounds, and 3 blocks on Diesel. Shaq responded with 41 points and 10 rebounds of his own. It was one of the 15 wins he managed against the Knicks legend.
In 2000, O’Neal had his final encounter with Ewing at Madison Square Garden. The Lakers center (by then he had transformed himself as the all-imposing superstar) scored 43 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in his highest-scoring game against the Knicks. His idol, on the verge of retirement by then, had lost a step or two. He grabbed 16 rebounds and scored just 12 points as LA took the game 92-85.
The O’Neal-Ewing duel, and how it panned out on the NBA hardwood beyond the statistics, illustrates the physicality involved. O’Neal remembers, and clearly misses, the Knicks from those days — the hard-nosed team which possibly helped Shaq elevate his game to another level.
