After playing in Los Angeles for 10 seasons, Byron Scott was tasked with stopping his former team in the 2002 NBA Finals. It was just his second season as the head coach of the Brooklyn Nets, but Scott knew how short-handed his roster was against the dominance of Shaquille O’Neal.
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“We had no answer for Shaq. You know, we had guys that could guard Kobe [Bryant]. They can’t stop Kobe but they can make it tough on Kobe,” the 63-year-old revealed on the ‘All the Smoke’ podcast.
As a player, Scott had won three NBA championships with the Lakers. He was well aware of the home crowd that awaited his Nets in Los Angeles and he tried to prepare his team for the bright lights. However, his 14-season experience as a player kicked in early and he could tell that a blowout awaited them.
“I’m standing there, and I’m watching our guys warm up and I’m going, ‘Man, we about to get the s**t beat out of us,’” Scott told Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.
As Barnes would comment, they were the “deer in the headlights” of a rampaging Lakers roster led by the Big Diesel. The Nets’ frontcourt rotation was led by undersized power forward Kenyon Martin, so rim deterrence was always going to be an issue against O’Neal.
Sophomore center Todd MacCulloch was tasked with defending the 7-footer for most of the series and as Scott predicted, they were unable to slow down the 2000 NBA MVP.
“When he [Shaq] come ready to play, there’s nothing you can do. We double teamed him, we triple teamed him and it was just nothing we can do. We were just outmanned, they just had a much better basketball team,” the two-time All-Star head coach added.
As big an admission as that is, it is also hard to deny Scott’s statement. His Nets were coming off a 26-win season and the only reason they were in the NBA Finals during Scott’s second season as head coach was the acquisition of Jason Kidd.
After averaging a triple-double in the Conference Finals against Boston, Kidd was intent on carrying his team as far as he could. Despite his best efforts though, the Nets’ first NBA Finals appearance would end with a sweep.
Shaq would average 36.3 points, 12.3 rebounds and 2.8 blocks in the series, completely overwhelming the Nets on the interior and undoing all of Kidd’s hard work on the opposite end. He later revealed how he found the matchup ‘boring’ due to MacCulloch’s inability to slow him down.
“It was boring because what was that center’s name… Todd MacCulloch… Todd MacCulloch playing me? Stop it. You know what’s crazy? I actually got mad when we were playing in Jersey. You think Todd McCulloch is going to stop me at the crib in Jersey in front of my grandma and grandpa?….Sheeeee*t! No. Stop it,” the three-time Finals MVP told Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson.
Unfortunately for the Nets, even an aging Dikembe Mutombo wouldn’t help them bolster their backcourt the following season. They would bounce back in 2002-03 and make their second consecutive trip to the Finals, only to lose in 6 to another legendary big — Tim Duncan.
