Vince Carter’s collection of dunks is second to none in the NBA. He was called Air Canada for a reason. Most logical defenders got out of his way when Vince took off to dunk the ball. Unfortunately, Alonzo Mourning was a true lover of the game. He would contest anything at the rim, irrespective of whether he got put on a poster or not.
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When Zo went on Shaquille O’Neal’s ‘Big Podcast’, he and host Adam Lefkoe discussed the responsibilities of a rim protector. While talking about it, Mourning mentioned that he didn’t care if people dunked on him, because contesting the dunk was better than letting the opposition get 2 easy points. In the same breath, he pointed at Shaq, and claimed Shaq would never get dunked on, simply because he’d foul the dunker before they got a chance to throw it down.
“Yeah, he used to foul, just to keep him getting dunked on. Yes, you took the foul man, you was like ‘Ain’t nobody ever dunked on me except for Derek Coleman. You used to just foul, take em out the air.”
Lefkoe brought up the time Vince Carter dunked on Mourning. He then asked him what would’ve happened had Vince tried to dunk on Shaq instead. Both O’Neal and Mourning laughed, as the Heat legend said,
“Oh he would’ve caught him, would’ve been in the third row. No doubt he would’ve caught him, he would’ve knocked the wind out of him.”
Shaq did defend himself, claiming he wasn’t actually afraid of getting dunked on. Stating that he was just afraid of hearing snarky remarks from his father and his uncle Jerome if he ever did.
However, Gilbert Arenas once decoded Shaq’s defense. He doubled down on Zo’s claim that Shaq fouled anyone at the rim and claimed that it was his whole strategy.
How Shaq created fear in the paint
Shaq’s prowess in the opposition’s paint is well documented, but we never hear about him defending. The big fella was good there too, with 2732 career rejections, placing him 8th on the all-time list.
However, Arenas claimed that Shaq wasn’t as much about blocking dunks, as he was creating fear in his opposition’s head. He explained, “Shaq’s very first foul was so hard that you’re like ‘Ooh, I don’t want to feel that’. Now, whoever is guarding me, you have a better chance of stopping me because I want to shoot jumpers now until he’s out of the game.”
Shaq had a massive frame, being one of the biggest players in NBA history. So for him to use the full force of his frame to try and stop you from getting to the room meant that any player trying to take him on at the rim would be in for at the very least, a high amount of pain.
Shaq used his fouls as a deterrent for opposition players coming up against him. Due to greater physicality being allowed during his time, Shaq could get away with making harder fouls, which would cause so much pain that opposition players would think twice before going up against him.
