Shaquille O’Neal wanted to have a command over both finesse and fundamentals as he wished to have a game like Tum Duncan and Julius Erving. However, his dreams of becoming Dr. J were crushed when he was in high school. After he missed a finger roll ala Dr. J style, his father called a time-out and chided him for trying the move. He wanted his son to stick his guns rather than chase anybody.
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During his recent appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, Shaq was asked that although he was a dominant force throughout his career, what one game stands out the most as an all-around skills performance? Shaq expressed that while he is seen as a dominant big player who used overwhelming force, he leaned on building more of a Duncan-like game.
Addressing guest host Suzy Shuster, he revealed, “Suzy knows this, I wanted to be like Tim Duncan. I wanted to be smooth in my game but double and triple kept coming so I had to be mean,” stated Diesel.
He then narrated a story where he revealed how his father played a significant role in honing this intimidating style of play. The 3x Finals MVP remembered an incident from high school where the opposition team applied a box and one defense to stop O’Neal. This sort of defense involves all defenders surrounding a singular offensive threat.
However, despite his immense physical capabilities as a 7’1” Center, he adopted more of a finesse style. But when the power slammer messed up one of his fast breaks, his father vented out his frustration at this style of play. He narrated, “I get a fast break and I’m not really dunking. I want to be smooth. I got to finger-roll, I miss and my father walks in the middle of the game. ‘Time Out’. In the middle of the game. ‘Outside’. He says, ‘What the f you doing?’ And I said, ‘Working on my Dr. J.”
“Before the J came out, [a slap] in front of everybody. He said,’f him, you need to be Shaq, you need to start dominating’,’’ added Shaq.
The LSU-bound athlete then started to apply his father’s advice at every turn. He then learned that domination isn’t about stats but the nature of play. No finesse here, just sheer force. The former Lakers Center utilized this force to make a mess of the backboards.
Shaquille O’Neal loved breaking the backboards
Even before entering the NBA, Shaq started splintering backboards. In an NBC feature four months before his NBA debut in 1992, he had a memorable dunk that would have broken the internet today. He was playing one-on-one against former NFL wide receiver and sportscaster Ahmad Rashad. During a play, he easily blew past Rashad. Seeing a clear lane to the rim, he went up for a nasty dunk and brought the rim down with him. As he brought down the rim, the backboard couldn’t bear the pressure and the rectangular area of the board around the rim went into pieces.
Therefore, it is no surprise that we can see the immovable force gloating about breaking backboards. During an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in 2022, he proudly claimed that he had broken ten backcourts. He recalled how during one of the instances, a shot clock fell on his head. But Shaq being Shaq, no one could tell if it did any damage at all.
