How Shaquille O’Neal Broke Basketball
The story of the most dominant center in NBA History
In 1993, a spry 20-year-old Shaquille O’Neal was making waves in his rookie season in the NBA. The LSU alum would go on to break the sport of basketball… figuratively and literally.
The Orlando Magics center was the first overall pick in the draft, and it soon became clear why. Shaq ran away with the Rookie of The Year award, averaging 23 points per game and 14 rebounds per game.
Not only were his numbers fantastic, but he also gave fans some of the most entertaining moments in basketball history. Shaq’s sheer power not only became a problem for his opponents, but also the basketball hoop itself.
In a game against the New Jersey Nets, O’Neal would absolutely throttle a dunk down, a dunk which didn’t just break the backboard, it brought the whole goal down. The force behind his dunk deflated the hoop’s hydraulic system, causing the whole thing to fall.
The NBA couldn’t let Shaq break their equipment whenever he pleased, so they had to “Shaq-Proof” the hoops starting in the 1993–1994 season. The league switched to tempered shatter-resistant glass and stronger backboard braces.
Perhaps the most dominant player in the history of NBA, teams had no answer to Shaq, who stood at an imposing 7-foot-1, 325 pounds.
O’Neal was so dominant that the NBA had to change the rules of the game in an effort to stop him. In 2002, the league announced they would legalize a system known as zone defense. Zone defense is when players on a team are assigned to guard a certain area on the court, not a player.
Prior to the rule change, players could not stray more than two steps from their assigned mark. By legalizing the zone defense, defenses could double, sometimes even triple team Shaq in the paint.
Even with a drastic change to the game, Shaq could not be stopped.
Shaq finished his career averaging a double-double, with 23.7 ppg and 10.9 rpg. He would also win four NBA championships, three finals MVP awards, and a regular season MVP.
Six years following his retirement from basketball in 2011, the former Magic, Los Angeles Laker, Miami Heat, Phoenix Sun, Cleveland Cavalier, and Boston Celtic was still impacting the NBA.
Prior to the 2016–17 season, the league announced a change to the rule book.
The aforementioned rule change was the addition of the “Hack-A-Shaq” rule, which prevented players from committing deliberate fouls away from the ball until the last two minutes of the game.
The reason the rule is called the “Hack-A-Shaq” rule is because several teams’ strategy to cope with O’Neal was to deliberately foul him since he was a poor free point shooter.
There has never been a player who changed the game of basketball as much as Shaq did.
His athletic power was unrivaled, and though he may not be considered the greatest of all time, one would be hard pressed to find a more dominant basketball player than the great Shaquille O’Neal.
Thanks for reading my story.
