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Shaquille O’Neal’s Teammate Once Tried to Dunk on him Wearing his Size 22 Shoes in the NBA All-Star Dunk Contest Before Failing Miserably 

Jeet Pukhrambam
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Shaquille O'Neal's Teammate Once Tried to Dunk on him Wearing his Size 22 Shoes in the NBA All-Star Dunk Contest Before Failing Miserably 

The NBA All-Star weekend is here and you can bet we will be pulling out an iconic list of moments. And while our archives are chock full of them, this time, we decided to focus on one of the legends, Shaquille O’Neal. Or, one of his teammates rather.

Shaq has always been a big name for the NBA. He is larger than life, and the league was sure to capitalize on it. Each year, he shows up to the All-star weekend without fail.

Without him, it would feel empty. And in his heyday, he was the star attraction. Of course, who wouldn’t want to see the giant 7-foot-tall behemoth dunk down empty lanes?

And it is his gravitas that made a teammate want to try out something different. Alas, it never happened.

Also read: “Chuck, You Suck”: Shaquille O’Neal’s Attempts to Start A Chant Against Charles Barkley Are Thwarted By Fans in Attendance

How Darrell Armstrong failed miserably and robbed us of an iconic dunk over Shaquille O’Neal

The Orlando Magic teammates, Darrell Armstrong, and Shaquille O’Neal had a deal. They wanted to do an iconic dunk. Throughout the 1996 NBA All-Star weekend, there were murmurs about a dunk featuring Shaq and Darrell.

But instead of getting a good score to qualify for the finals, Darrell instead performed a layup in a dunk contest. Yes, a layup. It remains one of the contest’s most mind-boggling bloopers.

So the original plan was to wear Shaq’s incredibly big size 22 shoes and dunk. But what’s more, Darrell wanted to do the dunk by jumping over Shaquille O’Neal himself.

Also read: “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has to worry about Giannis Antetokounmpo”: NBA Twitter Reacts as Greek Freak Becomes Franchise Leader in Major Stats 

The greatest blooper in the history of the NBA All-Star dunk contest?

Well, the dunk contest has been controversial for a lot of reasons. From awarding random scores to deserving dunkers to missing them altogether.

But none are perhaps more iconic than Darrell Armstrong’s layup. Forget a simple run and dunk. The Orlando Magic player literally performed a layup.

Doesn’t get more bizarre than that. And while we may have been robbed of a weird and memorable dunk featuring a 7-foot Shaq, that blooper will forever remain etched in our heads.

Also read: Inspired by Kobe Bryant’s overnight $400 million windfall, inspires Travis Kelce to team up with Lance Collins for new beverage deal

About the author

Jeet Pukhrambam

Jeet Pukhrambam

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Jeet Pukhrambam is The SportsRush's Lead Editor for Basketball. After freelancing for five years as an independent writer, Jeet created thousands of blog posts and articles. He now covers intriguing news reports and throwback stories on all things NBA. His interest in NBA started with the ascendancy of Giannis Antetokounmpo in the 2016-17 season. Since then, Jeet has managed to coalesce his knowledge of the game and his writing to create pieces that are reflective of the current state of the league. Now, he ensures that The SportsRush produces the highest quality of writing. In his free time, he enjoys playing football, cooking, traveling, and dancing to techno. Jeet takes pride in his critical thinking, music playlists, and his love for spaghetti.

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