Having played for six different teams over his 11-year career, Shaquille O’Neal may have been one of the NBA’s first superstar nomads.
While he is most known for his stints in L.A., Orlando, and Miami, the big man also played for Phoenix, Cleveland, and Boston before finally calling it a career in 2011.
O’Neal’s net goes so wide, in fact, that every single Finals series since 1984 (almost a decade before he was even drafted) has featured at least one player who has played with him at some point.
DID YOU KNOW? Every year the NBA Finals has featured at least one player that Shaq played with since the 1983-84 season*
*Note: Shaq was drafted in the 1992-93 season. pic.twitter.com/FxZtCZR0xk
— Sports Fellas (@TheSportsFellas) September 27, 2020
From LeBron James to Dwyane Wade, and Paul Pierce to Kobe Bryant, Shaq has played with a pretty long list of talented ballers from many different rosters. Of course, we know that most of his final two moves came at the latter stages of his career, and he was more of a veteran role-player than a star at that point.
Today, however, players change teams like we change shirts, and players having a history with three or four different teams doesn’t mean too much anymore.
Still, Shaq’s little Finals streak is impressive and it’s very possible that it could continue for years to come. I guess only time will tell.
