“Who the F**k Is Rik Smits?”: Shaquille O’Neal Showcases Fan’s Opinion on His Battles Against the Former Pacers Center

Shaquille O’Neal often shares interesting posts about his career on his Instagram stories, and basketball opinions of analysts, ex-players, and fans as well, that he finds to be intriguing. On Monday, he shared a post from Shaqwithme, a fan account dedicated to him, which brought up the Hall of Famer’s battle against former Indiana Pacers center Rik Smits.

The original video featured the duo’s highlights from a game between the Pacers and the Magic in Orlando in 1996. The caption of the post detailed the user’s fascination with the underrated rivalry,

“Ok I Cant Be The ONLY one saying WTF Is #RikSmits ?…. I Had No clue who he were, He Must wasnt a Threat to Shaq Because I Actually had to go Google The Guy To See who he was, No wonder i didnt know him, he played for the pacers, I HATED the Pacers back then.”

The account’s owner claimed he wasn’t aware who Rik Smits was and had to look up where he played after watching this clip of him battling valiantly against the most dominant player in the league at the time. In the clip, Smits could be seen trying his hardest to lock down Shaq in the post, which has always been an impossible task. But the Pacers star did as great of a job as could be expected, even scoring a few middies on the big man.

Shaq still had a dominant night, scoring 33 points, grabbing 11 rebounds, and blocking two shots. However, Smits, who finished with 24 points, six rebounds, two blocks and one assist, had the last laugh, as the Pacers beat the Magic 111-101.

Shaquille O’Neal hated playing against Rik Smits

Shaquille O’Neal has openly stated that he believes he is the most dominant player ever. However, in an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Jack McCullum, Shaq named four centers who were ‘equal or greater’ than him. He named Hall of Famers Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon, and the wildcard, Rik Smits. When asked about the former Pacers center’s surprise inclusion, O’Neal said,

“Rik destroyed me every time. Oh, my God. Pick-and-pop, jump hook in the post; I couldn’t stop that kid. If it wasn’t for his foot problems, I probably [never would] have been able to stop him.”

Smits was in his final season with the Pacers when Indiana faced the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2000 NBA Finals. O’Neal, who was in his fourth season with the Lakers, was gunning for his first NBA title and wasn’t about to let Smits get in the way. Despite the Pacers center’s best efforts, the Diesel averaged 38 points, 16.7 rebounds, 2.7 blocks, and 2.2 assists and led the Lakers to the NBA title. Talking about that series and his battle with Smits, the four-time NBA champion said,

“When we played them in the [2000] Finals, I had to go back to some old tape. I saw that this guy used to kill me, so now that I’m here in the Finals, I got to kill him immediately so he understands this is a different Shaq.”

O’Neal taking the time to study film says a lot about how much he respected Smits. The Pacers center enjoyed playing against the Hall of Famer as well. He averaged 14.8 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 1.4 assists during his NBA career, but managed 16.7 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game against O’Neal. Few players can boast about having better numbers against the three-time Finals MVP than their career average, and Smits is on that exclusive list.