Shaquille O’Neal is one of the most dominant NBA players to have ever lived, and his career stats reflect that. The 4-time Champion won 3 consecutive Finals MVPs during the Lakers’ 3-peat from 2000 to 2002. He almost won the first unanimous MVP in league history in 2000 but missed out by one vote.
Even though Shaq came into championship form from the 2000 season onwards, the makings of his dominance were all over the league already. Shaq was an instant success in the league, headlining the only team to have eliminated the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls in their run from 1991 to 1998 during the 1995 Playoffs.
In 1999, a few years into his Lakers stint, Shaq decided to prove a point against Chris Dudley with one of the most disrespectful dunks of all time. Shaq went up and posterized Dudley, giving him a shove on his way off the rim, dropping the Knicks center on the ground.
That dunk is infinitely replayable, and Shaq opened up on why he decided to act the way he did against Dudley. The answer? Shaq felt disrespected because he wasn’t being double-teamed and wanted to send a message. He would go on to dominate every team he faced in his career with monster individual highs.
(1:10:41) “Because when I got the ball, and I’m looking, you motherf***ers aren’t doubling. I take that as a sign of disrespect. You better double triple me. I take it as a sign of disrespect.”
Shaq would take a championship leap in his career soon after, so he didn’t have as many instances like this after that.
When O’Neal was in his prime, teams had no choice but to double or triple the man because his sheer dominance inside the paint made him unstoppable. The hope was that he’d go to the free throw line and fail to convert the shots, birthing the ‘Hack-A-Shaq’. He is one of the most unstoppable players in NBA history, with good reason.
