Thanks to our friends at Sports Illustrated for putting together a nice little birthday gift for our man Shaq. Yes, we know the big day has come and gone – about a week ago, as of this writing. But it’s never too late for just one more gift, right?
In a recent issue, SI has put together a list of what the magazine is calling O’Neal greatest five games. The list spans the years of Shaq’s NBA career, and includes games from Orlando, Miami and of course the Los Angeles Lakers .
In the words of the SI writers, it’s simply not possible to – as they put it – “capture Shaquille O’Neal’s greatness by highlighting individual performances.” Still, they gave it a good try, and put together the “best games” list. In what’s certainly one of the most dominating careers in hoops history, Shaq averaged 24 points per game, had 11 rebounds and a 58 percent shooting average, over a 19 year career. That’s over 12 hundred games!
Across that long and storied career, he was selected to 15 All-Star teams, was named to 14 All-NBA teams and three All-Defensive teams. Oh yeah, there were all those NBA Championship rings, too.
Our favorite quote from SI: “Ranking his very best games is almost beside the point. It’d be like putting the most delicious slices of pizza you’ve ever tasted in order instead of just saying, “Pizza is amazing.” Shaq is pizza.”
Rather than go into great detail about all five of the “best-of” games, we’ll invite you to check out the full article – with a video of the full game! – at the Sports Illustrated site: https://www.si.com/nba/2022/03/04/shaquille-oneal-ranking-five-greatest-games
Last to first, just for a few highlights. The last of the best was ranked as Game 6 of the 2006 Eastern Conference Finals between the Miami Heat and the Detroit Pistons. Maybe Shaq had a little “something to prove” for himself and his fans – that he could win without Kobe.
Offer proof he did. O’Neal closed out the series with a strong personal showing: 28 points, 16 rebounds and five blocks. For the win, O’Neal took 14 shots and missed just two.
For the best of the best, Sports Illustrated picked Game Six of the 2000 NBA Finals. The series was against the Indiana Pacers, and the Lakers had started out with a nice 3-1 lead, only to come out totally flat in Game 5. (In that particular game, Kobe went just 4-for-20, and scored only 2 points in the second half. No doubt he was still recovering from a sprained ankle suffered in Game 2.
Then came Game 6. Did Jalen Rose, Reggie Miller and the rest of the Pacers think they had a shot? Shaq and Kobe had other ideas, and it definitely went the Lakers way.
For Game 6, O’Neal finished with 41 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks. He still had his troubles at the free throw line, leading coach Phil Jackson to actually bench O’Neal for a whole of 30 seconds… the only 30 seconds Shaq sat for the entire game!
Free throw woes or not, in the end it didn’t matter. SI says that game was still Shaq’s best ever. No arguments here!