In the 1995 Finals, a young Shaquille O’Neal would face his toughest challenge yet: Hakeem Olajuwon at the peak of his powers.
Despite a friendly and respectable relationship between O’Neal and Hakeem, the Rockets superstar did not take it easy on Shaq, putting on a display of greatness that was absolutely unstoppable. It caught the Magic off guard and they would go on to win the series in a clean 4-game sweep.
Despite the series happening over 20 years ago, it’s something the Diesel apparently still thinks about today. In a sit-down on The Jordan Harbinger Show, he explained what went wrong in that ’95 matchup and the valuable lesson he learned in the process.
“I think I showed him too much respect. We had the same agent at one time, and he was just a nice guy. And I didn’t want to hurt my friend,” said Shaq. “He kinda set me up because during the regular season, I was having my way with him. So, when we got to the finals that year in Orlando, I was real arrogant. We had 10 days off we were doing things all wrong, flying to Atlanta, partying. It was out of control. I thought we were gonna win it. Then he just turned that switch on and I couldn’t get him to turn it off.
Usually a guy like that, on the first play of the game, I would try to comit an offensive foul. That was my thing, I take three steps to the middle and swing that eblow around. If your face there, you get hit. With him, I was real finesse, trying to be cute. But it also taught me a valuable lesson. I said to myself: if I ever make it back to the Finals again, I’m gonna throw a dominant performance so dominant it’ll guarantee a win. I think that’s why I got three Finals MVPs.”
Apparently, Shaq took it easy on Olajuwon. He saw him as someone he respected and looked up to. Unfortunately for Shaq, his timidness may have cost him a chip in Orlando. Or, maybe it would have made no difference at all.
Either way, the loss helped to bring out the best in the star big man and he would go on to string together one of the most dominant careers in basketball history with 4 Championships and 3 Finals MVPs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iKU6SObZQQ
