Last week, Shaquille O’Neal announced his retirement on his twitter page. For nineteen years he was one of professional basketball’s biggest characters and his achievements ranged from championships to starring roles on television. Shaq was the darling of social media sites and the video he posted to inform the world was typically eccentric: the video thanks his many fans worldwide before cutting to a clip of him wailing along to a Motown classic.
Standing at 7’1” and weighing in at an average of 150kg, Shaq was also the biggest on-court player of the past two decades. It is quite a feat that, despite his leviathan frame, he has retired as a nineteen year veteran. The human anatomy is simply not designed to support such a weight. Although his unparalleled production was often slowed by injuries, he battled through each season and never missed an entire year of basketball.
O’Neal was drafted first overall by the Orlando Magic in 1992 from Louisiana State University and became an instant star in the league. His averages of 23 points, 14 rebounds and 3.5 blocks only hinted at what was to come. Over the course of two decades Shaq would win four titles, fifteen All-Star selections and three Finals MVP trophies.
After his unprecedented emergence in Orlando in his first years there, O’Neal would leave the club in controversy. Never a player to keep his opinions to himself he publicly questioned the authority of his coach over the players and rejected a $115m contract in order to move to Los Angeles, the city where he would attain the peak of his fame. After two seasons of personal excellence which eventually ended in playoff disappointment, Kobe Bryant emerged as a superstar and Phil Jackson – Michael Jordan’s coach in Chicago for his multiple championships – was hired as head coach. Under Jackson’s ‘triangle offense’ Bryant and O’Neal flourished.
They were the most feared tandem in recent NBA history and every time Shaq received the ball he seemed nigh on unstoppable. In 2000, 2001 and 2002 the Lakers won the NBA championship and each time O’Neal emerged as MVP of the Finals. But just like in Orlando, Shaq’s arrogance would destroy his team’s harmony. His relationship with Bryant gradually deteriorated into a petty struggle for attention. The feud still simmers today, with each one occasionally releasing a statement to the media or, in O’Neal’s case, a rap video publicly calling Kobe out.
The Lakers eventually chose Bryant over Shaq and traded him to the Miami Heat, pairing him with another young superstar in Dwyane Wade. He promised his young team and coach a title; predictably he delivered in 2006. Having won a championship in his fourteenth year, many players would have retired then and there, at the peak of their powers. But O’Neal loved both the game and the huge amounts of media attention that it garnered him. He bounced through the league – eventually ending up in Boston after spells with the Phoenix Suns and the Cleveland Cavaliers – but was always relevant on the court. This season he showed flashes of his former dominance but they came in all-too-short bursts. His retirement was well timed.
Shaquille O’Neal’s legacy will be twofold. One of the beauties of basketball is the grace and effortlessness with which enormous men manoeuvre themselves. Shaq frequently boasted that he had over a hundred post moves, his most famous being the ‘Black Tornado’, in which he used his unique combination of power, speed and touch to dominate his opponent. In his prime it was impossible to guard him one-on-one and he was the last truly dominant centre to play in the NBA. However, his reputation will be tarnished by the endless drama which followed his success. At times an intense competitive spirit was misinterpreted as arrogance: O’Neal’s respect had to be earned on the court. Despite the constant controversy which followed his Hollywood entourage, Shaq will be best remembered for his character. His relationship with the media was excellent and he is still adored by fans worldwide.
