“The shot clock hit me in the head and I was like, ‘Damn I need some Icy Hot!’”: Shaquille O’Neal describes having to play off a significant injury

Shaquille O’Neal hilariously claims to have gotten hit in the head by a shot clock after tearing down a backboard in the NBA. 

If there’s one thing Shaquille O’Neal made a name for himself at was the fact that he was perhaps the most powerful player the NBA has ever seen in 75 years. The word ‘dominant’ gets thrown around and they wouldn’t be wrong to call him that in the slightest. The 3x Finals MVP won 4 championships by being quite the presence in the paint. 

It wasn’t always thunderous dunks however, as O’Neal has actually made more shots from the 6-7 feet range (floater range), than anybody else in the NBA in the past 25 years. The only other range that he’s made the most shots from than anybody else in that same quarter of a century time span is 0-1 foot.

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Safe to say that Shaquille O’Neal was just as graceful with his touch from afar as he was dominant in the paint with his posters. 

Perhaps the best display of the latter was breaking as many backboards as we have fingers on our hands during his playing days. 

Shaquille O’Neal talks about breaking a backboard and getting hit in the head. 

Shaquille O’Neal loves to do interviews and in this particular sit-down with Jimmy Fallon on ‘The Tonight Show’, the Lakers MVP talked about breaking about 10 backboards in his playing days. Fans know this to be true because he’s done this all throughout high school as well as in the league.

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“One time the shot clock fell and hit me in the head. But, since it was in an arena, I had to play it off like it didn’t hurt. But when I got back to the locker room I was like, ‘I need some Icy Hot or something’” 

It’s also quite obvious which dunk he’s talking about. This one would be against the New Jersey Nets while he was still on the Orlando Magic. Not only did he break the backboard, he broke the entirety of the structure that supports the hoop.