In a hilarious moment on TNT’s ‘Inside the NBA’, Shaquille O’Neal failed miserably while trying to attempt a crossover move inspired by Jalen Green. On March 19, during the Rockets’ 137:114 win against the Wizard, Green scored 42 points and pulled out a special move. The guard brought out a left-hand dribble and then faked going left. After a power dribble, he brought the ball behind his back to his right hand and in the process, defender Jared Butler hit the floor, leading to a wide-open triple for the high-scoring guard which he nailed easily.
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While nailing the shot, Green gave a staredown to Butler after the double crossover which made for an epic highlight. During the Inside the NBA’s ‘Craws’d Up’ segment with Jamal Crawford, Shaq tried to replicate the springy Rockets guard. A suited-up O’Neal was “guarded” by Crawford and unlike Green, neither could he employ the power dribbles nor leave the defender in the dust.
Instead, he had a slow-paced basic behind-the-back dribble and his shot after a “contest” by Candace Parker didn’t even hit the rim. The clip by NBA on TNT’s X account covered Shaq’s misadventures as he attempted to recreate Green’s extraordinary double crossover.
The big fella performed the maneuver multiple times but the result was the same, an awkward behind-the-back dribble followed by an air ball. Crawford, who faked falling after the dribble move, repeatedly teased Shaq for looking at the rim without looking at the “fallen” defender like Green’s staredown.
During the segment, they also played Shaq attempting a sleek behind-the-back dribble move on the baseline by Heat guard Duncan Robinson. As expected, Shaq also failed to execute the move by Robinson and produced a comic effect.
Shaquille O’Neal showcased his handles during his heydays
While Shaq’s current dribbling maneuvers would have left many fans in splits, he once put on a show on the court. During the 1996 All-Star game, the former Magic Center engaged in a 1v1 against Michael Jordan. He showcased brilliant handles on two occasions.
At first instance, he used a couple of dribbles and nailed a pull-up jumper against MJ. Meanwhile, his maneuvers during the second time were even more impressive.
The dominant 15x All-Star employed two well-executed between-the-legs dribble. Then he took Jordan to post and in Olajuwon’s Dream Shake style confused Jordan as to where he will go next. To complete the move, Shaq made a lovely hook shot. Thus, while Shaq expectedly may not be producing such highlights anymore at age 52, he used to have some decent handles.
However, his current handles in the studio have received some hilarious reactions from fans, one even highlighting the comic quotient of his moves, “People are forced to laugh.”
During the 1996 Olympics practice, he made similar between-the-legs moves against Scottie Pippen. He showed a rather profound dribbling skillset and made long-range jumpers too. These two examples can break the narrative of the big fella being just a dominant low-force back in the day.
