Shaquille O’Neal, the fierce competitor that he is, hates losing. He finds it even more hard to come to grips with it if he misses out on a win because of external factors. Shaq is still “pissed” losing the 1994 NBA Scoring title to David Robinson in a race that was decided on the last day of the season. And he has been livid ever since getting to know that some behind-the-scenes manipulation, or as he puts it, “shenanigans” led to The Admiral winning the award.
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On the recent episode of The Big Podcast, the Lakers legend wondered if he should seek legal action against the NBA for doing him dirty. The conversation began when host Adam Lefkoe brought up a recent Dominique Wilkins confession.
Wilkins had revealed that the then LA Clippers owner, Donald Sterling, told the coach to take out important players early in his side’s season-ending game against Robinson’s San Antonio Spurs. This was done so that David could get his shot at the scoring title.
The larger motive, allegedly, was to ensure the coveted title stayed in the Western Conference. Shaq was playing for the Orlando Magic in the East at the time. He learned about the manipulation from an Instagram reel in August, and commented on the post, “I fu**in knew it.”
On the Big Podcast‘s latest episode, Shaq said, “Should I sue? [on the grounds of] point shaving, tampering? I wonder if David Robinson was in on this.”
Lefkoe also alleged David Stern wanted the Admiral to win and keep the scoring title. When asked what the NBA commissioner’s motive to rig the scoring title could be, Shaq responded:
“Because you don’t want a young unorthodox guy coming in. Because remember, I played the line but I go over the line. See what I am saying. I have always done it my way… Me and Draymond are similar.”
The race between Shaq and The Admiral for the scoring title was very close in 1994. It came down to the last game of the season.
Shaq dropped 32 points in his last game against the New Jersey Nets. To beat the big fella, Robinson needed 33 points. The Spurs star scored more than double of that against the Clippers, a career-high 71 points.
Although Shaq went on to win the scoring title the following year, and then again in 2000, losing to Robinson in such a messy way leaves him sore. The big man admitted that he got angry watching the last game of the season again. He claimed that many things that happened during the game had seemed fishy to him even back then.
While Shaq is still bitter about it, and rightfully so, Robinson revealed during an interview that he couldn’t believe he scored 71 points that day. He said, “I looked up at the scoreboard. I said, ’71 points. Oh, my goodness!’ It was unbelievable. My team has been behind me the whole year.
“They always push me to do a lot of individual things. As a leader, I just try to win games, but tonight they really wanted me to shoot it. When the game started they were looking for me almost every time down the court.”
It’ll be interesting to see if Shaq will follow up. If he does sue, there’s surely a case for him based on all the available testimony.
