“Shaquille O’Neal Left the Game With 46 and 24!”: Dirk Nowitzki Recollected Coach Nelson’s ‘Joke’ About ‘Trapping’ Prime Lakers Shaq

While playing for the Lakers, Shaquille O’Neal was in the prime time of his career. He had established himself as one of the league’s best and most dominant centers. Most of his opponents, including some of the legends of the game, recalled Shaq’s unparalleled dominance. In a 2019 interview with Bauerfeind USA, Dirk Nowitzki describes an incident when he was asked to guard Shaq during a Lakers vs Mavs game. After playing against Shaq, the Hall of Famer called his coach’s decision to compete against Shaq a literal ‘joke.’

As a center in the league, Dirk looked up to Shaq’s prowess and skills. He was a massive fan of the Diesel and even had rap lyrics of ‘What’s Up Doc’ memorized word-to-word. However, facing the big man in his prime during a league game was no less than a nightmare for the 2007 MVP.

Shaquille O’Neal once dropped 46 points on Dirk Nowitzki guarding him

Shaquille O’Neal was a force to be reckoned with in the late ’90s and early 2000s. In an early December game in 2001, the Dallas Mavericks were facing the Lakers in a regular season game. Coach Don Nelson had assigned Dirk Nowitzki, then a skinny third-year in the league, to guard Shaq.

Upon knowing his game position,  Nowitzki was shocked. He thought it was a joke to guard prime Shaq, who was expected to demolish anyone against him. Describing this instance, Nowitzki vividly remembered,

“Shaq was on top of his game. You know, they were winning every year. And you know, he was a force that nobody’s ever seen. So Coach Nelson, Donnie had the idea, ‘Okay, you [Dirk Nowitzki] gonna guard Shaq.’ And I kind of looked at him and was like, ‘Okay, Is this a joke?’ He’s like, ‘Everytime he crosses half court, you just stand in front of him, basically front of him everywhere he goes. And when they lobbed it over, her comes big Shawn Bradley, and then you guys kind of trap him,  and it’s gonna work.’

And the game starts right away. He of course, kind of seals me. I get around. Lob comes, Shawn comes. He basically elbows us both out of the way, and dunks as hard as he could. And, next time around, same thing. Of course the plan didn’t work out. We were both too skinny to handle him. He ended up having like 46 points, I mean just dunking on us. That was my Shaq story. I tried to guard him and he (Shaquille O’Neal) left the game with 46 points, and probably 24 or something.”

In that same game, Nowitzki also had a commendable performance, dropping 33 points against the Lakers. Los Angeles defeated the Mavs 98-94 in the game, having lost just one game until that time in the season.

Shaq also recognizes the greatness of Nowitzki and often showers praise for the German legend. In his recent IG post, Shaq acknowledged Nowitzki for receiving his Hall of Fame ring and jacket as the 2023 class of inductees.

Shaquille O’Neal has tremendous respect for his league colleague Dirk Nowitzki

The respect between Shaq and Dirk Nowitzki is mutual. As Nowitzki got inducted into the 2023 class of the Hall of Fame, Shaq was much elated about his colleague’s achievement. However, before this, Shaq asked Kristen Ledlow to refer to him by his new nickname, ‘Dark’ Nowitzki.

Ledlow was very much awkward and uncomfortable using this self-appointed nickname on Shaq. However, the TV anchor succumbed to the pressure from the 7’1″ legend. Perhaps, this was one way of equating his remarkable career with German legend Dirk Nowitzki.