Set the WayBack Machine for the NBA Finals series of the 2001 season for a very cool bit of Shaq-history. Our thanks to BasketballNetwork.net for details on this story.
It was back in the Championship Playoffs and Finals of that year that the Los Angeles Lakers and their dominant big man – Shaquille O’Neal – were absolutely destroying the competition all through the tournament. For the Finals, Shaq would win his second consecutive NBA Finals MVP award that year as well.
But even though the Lakers would win the Finals that year, collecting more jewelry for Shaq and teammates, O’Neal wasn’t happy. Why, you ask? Well, it all has to do with Allen Iverson, who was playing for the Lakers opponents in the Finals that year, the Philadelphia 76ers.
In an interview conducted after the series, Shaq spelled it out. He was mad at the Sixers, and Iverson in particular. “I’m upset with him because he messed up history,” Shaq would say afterwards. “Because the year that we were 14-1, I was so mad and upset I wanted to go 16 and 0 because there was some other stuff going on with some moneys and I was like, okay, I’m about to show you that we the best Laker team ever because I get tired of hearing that word that Laker team was better so I’m about to prove the deal. And like if we would have gone 16-0, we can both say okay, Magic and Kareem ain’t go 16-0, you know what I’m saying, like that so we underestimated him in that first game. I think he hit us for 51.”
What Shaq was talking about was the fact that the 2001 Los Angeles Lakers were – without doubt – one of the best playoff teams of all time. They swept through the opposition in the Western Conference and looked like they were going to be the first team in NBA history to go undefeated in the postseason as they were heavy favorites heading to the NBA Finals. What an accomplishment that would have been, right?
But…Allen Iverson spoiled the party. Coming into the Finals, Iverson had already been named the 2001 NBA MVP after leading the league in scoring at 31.1 points per game during the regular season. AI was every bit as good, if not better, in the postseason as well, putting up more than 32 points per game in the playoffs.
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So the Sixers made their way to the Finals, where the Lakers had been waiting after their perfect (so far) playoff run. And just like he’d been doing all through the Eastern playoff tournament, Iverson set the twine on fire again. This even with O’Neal shutting down the paint.
As Shaq remembers, Iverson was not going to be stopped. “He was a dog,” Shaq said. “He’s probably (the only) guy I couldn’t punk. Like if I block a shot, like most guys when I block their shot, they won’t come back again. He come in every time.”
So in that Game 1, Iverson did his thing to the tune of 41 points against Shaq and the Lakers. He shot just 43.9% from the field but his effort netted him 48 points. Even with Shaq’s monster 44 points and 20 rebounds in the game, the Sixers stole it for the win.
Now, the Lakers would go on to win the next four games of the series and win their second consecutive championship that year. But there it was – that The Game 1 loss to Philly. The single, solitary blot on their otherwise perfect playoff and Finals run.
Despite losing Game 1 to the Sixers, the Lakers still set a franchise record by going 15-1 (.938) and they still were the best playoff team ever as of that time. That record stood until the Golden State Warriors went 16-1 during their 2017 title run. With the extra win due to the first round series becoming a best-of-seven affair, the 2017 Dubs surpassed the Lakers as the best playoff team ever with a slightly better winning percentage of .941.
