There were probably a select few players who could remain unfazed while going against the embodiment of destruction that was Shaquille O’Neal. Considered to be one of the most dominant players of all time, the Los Angeles Lakers legend had an intimidating presence on the court that was rather hard to ignore. Therefore, it shouldn’t really come off as a surprise that he had the ability to unnerve players with his mere presence. And that’s exactly what he did when he was in the last year of his NBA career, an eight-time NBA All-Star recently revealed.
After having a successful run with the Los Angeles Lakers, Shaq was traded to the Miami Heat, where he led his team to their first-ever championship title. He then played one season each with the Phoenix Suns and the Cleveland Cavaliers before finally concluding his career with the Boston Celtics.
Shaquille O’Neal scared former Pacers star with his mere presence
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The 2010-2011 Boston Celtics had quite a strong roster, that included Shaquille O’Neal, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Rajon Rondo. Therefore, when they showed up together for a matchup against the Indiana Pacers, it ended up being an overwhelming experience for Paul George. George recently recalled the incident from his rookie year that filled him with dread.
In the latest episode of Podcast P with Paul George, the Los Angeles Clippers star shared, “It was my rookie year, I wasn’t playing. I think I had my uniform on but I wasn’t playing. And I’m on the bench and you look at it and I don’t know, it just looked like they were larger than they appeared. And I’m watching them and I see Rondo, I see Ray Allen, I see Paul Pierce, I see KG, I see Shaq and I’m like, ‘Yo, what the…! Am I really w…‘.”
George continued, “It didn’t really hit me until I was like on the bench and I was watching this and we’re getting blown out and I’m like ‘F*ck’. My name’s gonna get called at some point, to check into this game and luckily I didn’t play that game.”
Shaq’s insane dunk baffles PG
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It seems like the game that Paul George mentioned will forever remain etched in his mind. As the conversation progressed, PG mentioned one other incident from the Pacers vs Celtics game that left him bewildered. While George was spared from getting crushed by the Celtics, watching Shaq play finally made him realize that he was in the big leagues.
He recalled that someone had made a lob towards Shaq and one of his teammates, Jeff Foster, tried to block the Big Diesel. He continued, “So Jeff Foster tries to like, you know, swat it and Shaq just comes and like ‘Boom! Bang!’ Like, dunks on them hard as sh*t and I was just like, ‘Wow, welcome to the f*cking league’.”
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Well, you don’t just call him one of the most dominating players for no reason!
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