“Shaq Knocked Me…Stepped Over Me”: Uncalled Foul Still Bothers NBA Veteran Years After Harsh Shaquille O’Neal Encounter

Are you even in the NBA unless you’re stepped over on your first day on the job? It was technically not Raymond Felton’s first day but he was a rookie when he had to play against a veteran, 3x champion (he won one more later), dominant center, Shaquille O’Neal. Two decades later, Felton is able to laugh off the sore limbs and retell the initiation rite Shaq subjected him to. And it was painful.

On his podcast, Run Your Race, Felton recalled his biggest ‘welcome to the NBA’ moment. The then-21-year-old was selected by the erstwhile Charlotte Bobcats (now Hornets) in 2005. O’Neal was playing with the Miami Heat then and was on the way to winning his fourth championship. In a game between the Bobcats and the Heat, Shaq roughed him up quite a bit.

“Shaq went in the air, Shaq knocked me… I’m talking about knocked me flat on my back.” Felton was young and naive to think the veteran foul menace would be called for that. He seemingly learned that lesson that day too. “They didn’t call a foul. He stepped over me, stepped over me, boom boom.”

The highlight was Big Aristotle’s awareness of the terror he’s to the youngster. After he knocked Felton, he told him, “Welcome to the league, young fella.” He clearly left an impression because Felton still remembers it vividly.

Shaq and Felton had many face-offs till the giant retired in 2011. It’s unclear which game he’s referring to but it’s not farfetched. O’Neal was tough on everyone on the court and a massive prankster to rookies. Felton probably didn’t know that Shaq was just keeping the tradition going.

Shaq was welcomed to the NBA by the biggest opponent

When Felton came on the scene, the ultimate bully had retired two seasons ago. But in 1992, a rookie Shaq had to prepare for the inevitable meetup with Michael Jordan. At that time, it was a sort of initiation to go against His Airness for any hopes of reaching the Finals. O’Neal had braced himself right away to take on the defending champ and his idol.

Their first game was on January 12, 1993, when the Orlando Magic hosted the Bulls. O’Neal was awestruck by MJ’s aerial feats that resulted in 23 points out of the Bulls’ 112-106 win. O’Neal kept up with 19 points of his own. That wasn’t even one of their biggest clashes.

In their second matchup days later, Shaq tried to not get posterized by Jordan and ended up hard-fouling him out of nervousness. Because that’s his hero, Shaq helped him up. Jordan gave him a lesson instead to not help an opponent up, praised that foul, and went off for 64 points. But the Bulls ended up losing 124-128 to Orlando. That’s redemption at its finest.

Shaq may have taken that lesson seriously enough to not help up Felton. No doubt the ‘Welcome to the NBA’ generational trauma is going strong.