JUNE 5, 2000 SHAQUILLE O’NEAL
Of all the big men currently in the NBA, few have as good a sense of humor as does Shaquille O’Neal. Whether poking fun at himself or other players, bantering with the press, or entertaining children in need by dressing up as “Shaq-a-Claus” at Christmas, O’Neal has managed to keep fans smiling since his rookie year.
But when he’s on the court, he’s all business — and his business is winning games and taking teams to the Finals.
Shaq was drafted by the Orlando Magic in 1992 and made an instant impact on the four-year-old team. At seven feet one and weighing more than three hundred pounds, he was a force to be reckoned with and capable of snatching rebounds over the heads of smaller players, driving the lane on the way to layups, and most thrilling of all, laying down thunderous dunks. His dunks were so thunderous, in fact, that twice during his rookie season he pulled the entire hoop structure down with him!
He helped the Magic win twenty more games in the 1992–93 season than they had won the previous year. By 1994–95, he had driven them all the way to the Finals. Unfortunately for Orlando fans, their team was swept by the more-seasoned Houston Rockets that year. These same fans received another blow the next season when they learned that their star center was leaving the Magic to join the Los Angeles Lakers.
O’Neal’s combination of sheer power and surprising quickness boosted the 1996–97 Lakers to their best record since 1991. He and his teammates quickly dispatched the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the playoffs, only to fall to the Utah Jazz in the semifinals.
The Lakers improved their record the next year and once more made it to the playoffs — only to lose to the Jazz again in the semifinals. The 1998–99 season was a blip on the basketball radar screen — for due to a dispute between the NBA and the players, the first games weren’t played until February! Still, in the shortened fifty-game schedule, the Lakers emerged with thirty-one wins. Shaq was again a big reason for the team’s success, although a second member of the squad was emerging as an equally important cog in the Lakers’ victory machine.
Kobe Bryant had first made headlines in 1996 when he was drafted into the NBA straight out of high school. Bryant spent his first two seasons coming off the Lakers’ bench. But by 1998, his massive talent had earned him a spot in the starting lineup — and he never looked back. By the 1999–2000 season, he was regularly scoring in double digits, as well as nabbing rebounds and dishing assists in numbers nearly as high. On court, he and Shaq formed a one-two punch that few teams could match.
The Lakers roared into the 2000 postseason, winning an amazing 67 out of 82 games, the best in their division. Shaq led the league in points per game with 29.7; he also led the team in rebounds, with 13.6 per game. Kobe stepped up his play as well and wound up with 4.9 assists per game, the team’s best.
O’Neal was now in his eighth year with the NBA. He had reached the playoffs in all but his first. But so far he had failed to win the coveted championship ring.
His determination to win one this time was clear in the first round against the Sacramento Kings. Shaq absolutely attacked the hoop, posting 46 points, 29 of which came in the second half alone! Those points cleared the way for the Lakers’ 117–107 win.
But that was just one win. “We’re on a mission here,” O’Neal said shortly after the game. And that mission was to keep winning.
That’s just what the Lakers did. They beat the Kings in four games in the best-of-five series to move to the semifinals. There they met — and beat — the Phoenix Suns. Next up were the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Trail Blazers entered the series with a very specific plan in mind. That plan was called the “Hack-a-Shaq,” and it called for Portland’s players to do exactly that: hack, or foul, Shaq. O’Neal was an inconsistent free throw shooter — “Me shooting forty percent at the foul line is just God’s way to say nobody’s perfect,” he once said — and the Blazers figured they could keep his scoring down by putting him on the line. They also figured that a physical game that found Shaq double- and triple-teamed throughout would wear on the big man.
They figured wrong. Shaq hit 13 of 26 free throws in the first game, 12 of 25 in the fourth quarter alone. In all, he made 41 points and had 11 rebounds, 7 assists, and 5 blocked shots in the 109–94 win. “It hasn’t worked all year,” Shaq commented about the Blazers’ inability to contain him, “and it ain’t gonna work.”
The Trail Blazers fought back the next match, however, and trounced the dumbfounded Lakers, 109–77. Kobe Bryant made a game-saving block in their third outing, preventing a possible overtime decision in the Lakers’ 93–91 victory. Los Angeles took game four as well, 103–91. They needed just one more win to take the series and advance to the Finals.
They didn’t get it the next match — or the one after that. Suddenly, the series was tied at three games apiece!
Shaq was undoubtedly frustrated by his team’s apparent collapse, but he remained determined nonetheless. “We have to lay it all down,” he said in an interview after game six. “The fans have to be ready, the city has to be ready, and the players have to be ready.”
The seventh and final game of the series was played before nearly 20,000 cheering fans in Los Angeles. Those cheers grew quiet, however, as the Blazers slowly took the lead. At the end of the first quarter, Portland was up by seven. By halftime, their lead had shrunk to just three. But then, in the third quarter, they steamrolled ahead to an eleven-point advantage — an advantage that grew by four more points in the first minutes of the last quarter!
No team in the history of the NBA playoffs had ever before overcome such a huge deficit in game seven to win. For the Lakers to do just that seemed downright impossible.
But then something happened. With ten and a half minutes left on the clock, Shaq scored two points. Then he made a free throw. Teammate Brian Shaw drained a three-pointer. Kobe and Shaq both made points from the line. Robert Horry of the Lakers chalked up a three-pointer — and then Kobe posted two more points, followed by yet another three-pointer by Shaw!
The score was tied, 75–75! Fifteen unanswered points in six minutes! The Lakers were suddenly 100 percent back in the game, and they weren’t done yet!
The Trail Blazers went up by two, only to see the score even up a second time when Shaq hit two from the foul line. Then it was Shaq again, sinking a hook shot to give the Lakers the lead with just over two minutes remaining.
Once more Portland tied it up, this time on a shot from Rasheed Wallace. But Los Angeles was not to be denied. Kobe was fouled and made both of his free throws to put the Lakers ahead by two. He hit a jump shot moments later, skying over veteran Scottie Pippen, to stretch the lead to four.
Then came the play of the game. With less than a minute remaining, Pippen tried for a three-pointer. His shot ricocheted off the rim. Shaq jumped up, caught the ball, and sent it to Kobe. Then as Kobe dribbled downcourt, Shaq jogged toward the far hoop.
The Trail Blazers had guarded O’Neal closely throughout the game — throughout the entire series, in fact. But this time, they took their eyes off him. It was just for a moment, but that moment was long enough for Shaq to make his move.
He cut to the basket, arm raised to signal Kobe. Kobe caught the signal. He dribbled quickly to the foul line, leaped, and lobbed a pass toward the hoop.
Shaq jumped with the pass. He snared the ball in his huge right hand and, with forty seconds showing on the game clock, slammed the ball through the basket for a resounding dunk!
The crowd went wild. Shaq raced to the other end of the court, waving his index fingers in the air and yelling right along with them. Players from the bench swarmed him before quickly returning to the sidelines.
Shaq’s last-minute alley-oop punctuated the single greatest turnaround in NBA playoff history. When the final horn sounded, the Lakers had won, 89–84.
“My father once told me that even if you shoot ninety-nine percent and don’t make the ones you’re supposed to make, nothing else matters,” O’Neal said after the game.
Fortunately for Lakers fans, Shaq made all the ones that mattered that night.
The Lakers won the NBA Finals that year, as well as in 2001 and 2002, joining the Minneapolis Lakers, the Boston Celtics, and the Chicago Bulls as one of the only teams in history to “three-peat” as champions. Shaq was awarded the Finals MVP each time, and in 2002 he once again led in scoring and rebounding. He played two more seasons with Los Angeles before moving back to Florida to play for the Miami Heat. Today he is a member of the Phoenix Suns. Kobe Bryant, meanwhile, has become the Lakers’ star player. In 2008, he earned his first league MVP award in recognition of his outstanding team play.