“It Was Embarrassing and It Was My Fault”: Shaquille O’Neal’s Lifelong Regret Still Haunts 7ft Giant to This Day

19 seasons, 4 championships, 3 MVP awards, and Shaquille O’Neal still holds on to one regret. His attachment to his first NBA team is incomparable: a fledgling team that took a gamble on the rookie they picked first overall. Several times, Superman came close to bringing the championship to the Orlando Magic. But he left the team without a win in his books. And recently, O’Neal opened up about that stint.

But before getting to what exactly Shaq found “embarrassing,” a couple of weeks ago, when the Lakers were going into Game 4 against the Nuggets with the risk of being swept two seasons in a row, Stephen A. Smith made a striking claim. “There’s nothing to talk about in the GOAT conversation if LeBron gets swept,” the analyst said. “Yet another argument in favor of Michael Jordan’s GOAT status, being that he’s never been swept [in a best-of-seven series].” If that’s the criteria for GOAT status, then O’Neal wouldn’t have been in the running at all after the 1995 NBA Finals.

In an appearance on JJ Redick’s podcast, when Redick said, “that, to me, is the ultimate,” Shaq revealed what it meant to be a Finals MVP. However, he couldn’t help but reflect on his chance with Orlando in 1995. “Yeah, to me, that’s the ultimate,” Shaquille O’Neal agreed. But he added, “I don’t like doing things that hurt me twice. When I got swept in Orlando, it was embarrassing. And it was my fault. It was embarrassing. I’m the type of guy that sh*t will live with me forever because it was a mistake.”

He called it his fault because of a hard lesson he learned only after losing the Finals. Between Michael Jordan‘s two three-peats and following his first retirement, Shaq was having his best season yet. Jordan came out of retirement in 1995, wore #45, and had to get through the monstrous 7’1″ center of the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Through a tough back and forth and some trash talk, the Magic eliminated the Chicago Bulls in Game 6. But a “mistake” on Shaq and his team’s part cost them.

Shaq has brought it up before. The team had 10 days off after beating the then-three-time champions. They were on an emotional high of beating His Airness. Not many in the ’90s walked away with the ego boost of beating Jordan in a playoff series. This would become the proudest highlight of Shaq’s resume now. Back then, it was big enough to celebrate during the playoffs. Looking back at it now, all Shaquille O’Neal can think is, “‘You d**khead! You could’ve got Orlando their first championship.'”

JJ Redick asked Shaq if he’d stayed in Orlando to celebrate or gone elsewhere. The former center said, “I went elsewhere. [To] Atlanta. I was just chilling. I was like, ‘I’ve learnt that the Finals are 10 days away. I can’t be like this 9entirely focused on the next games) for 10 days.'” He revealed, “They gave us three days off, and then we came back to practice.” Although they got the job done in the Conference Finals, that was the end of the road.

They had beaten the Indiana Pacers and were about to meet the defending champions, the Houston Rockets, in the Finals. But they were still on a high after the win over Chicago and, shall we say, distracted by their triumph. What was touted as a battle of All-Star centers between Shaq and Hakeem Olajuwon ended up a disappointing show as the laid-back Orlando Magic was swept in four games in the Finals, a cold punch in the gut for Shaq. Per the Magic legend, “Hakeem just took it to a whole another level that I didn’t even know he had. And we got swept.”

Reaction Info: Does Shaq deserve to take the blame for Orlando’s defeat?

In the 4-game series, Olajuwon averaged 32.8 points, 11.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 2.0 blocks, and 2.0 steals while shooting 48.3% from the field. The Nigerian-American outscored Shaq in every game, joining a very exclusive group of players to have scored more than 30 points in each game of the series. But the 7’1″ center proved to be a formidable opponent, averaging 28.0 points, 12.5 rebounds, 6.3 assists, 2.5 blocks, and 0.3 steals while shooting 59.5%.

Reflecting on the series, Shaquille O’Neal added, “When you’re sensitive like I am, you never want it to be your fault. Every time we lost a game or lost in playoffs, it was definitely my fault. And I took that responsibility. All the times we got swept was my fault.” At the end of the day, Orlando Magic’s preemptive celebrations turned out to be a huge mistake, taking their focus off the upcoming games. But it taught Shaq an important lesson.

Shaquille O’Neal wanted to make history in Orlando

O’Neal loves the Magic so much that he wishes to be part of the ownership group. That way, if the team wins, he’s part of Orlando’s winning history. And not just as its most dominant center and the first Orlando player to have his jersey retired. However, he admitted to being overconfident after beating the “greatest player in the world” in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. “But what it taught me is to never celebrate until the job is done.”

28 years after Hakeem Olajuwon led the Houston Rockets to two consecutive championships and was named the Finals MVP on both occasions, Shaquille O’Neal couldn’t help but acknowledge Olajuwon for making him a better player. In an interview with the Houston Chronicle last year, Shaq said, “I realized that in order to be the best, you have to beat the best. That year, we faced off, and the best won out. It just made me a much stronger competitor.”

That defeat instilled a seriousness in him that he never forgot, vowing that, “‘If I ever get back to the Finals, imma f**king kill everybody.'” That happened at the end of the Jordan era and when Shaq was three seasons into his Lakers career. He went on to win three rings for them (1999-2002), and a subsequent on with the Miami Heat in 2006. But he never got to do it for his favorite team.