Shaquille O’Neal’s Potentially Fatal Blow Almost Resulted in Lawsuit, as Per 6ft 11 NBA Veteran

You’d only want to mess with Shaquille O’Neal physically in his prime if you were a cat with nine lives. And Brad Miller nearly lost one during the infamous incident when Shaq took a full swing at him. This happened while Shaq was playing with the LA Lakers against Miller’s Chicago Bulls in 2002. Appearing on the ‘All the Smoke’ podcast, Miller revisited the incident and discussed the possible outcomes had the 4x NBA champ landed the blow on him.       

Miller said one possibility could have been he would have been sucking through a straw had the blow landed. However, he believes this could also have led to legal action against Shaquille O’Neal. “My agent would have sued him. And I’d be part of how many damn companies he got? I was like, I’ll take 5% of every company,” the 6’11” former Bulls star stated on the podcast.

This came after the discussion of what happened on the day of the incident. As per what Miller recollected on the show, the Bulls’ strategy was that since Shaquille O’Neal cannot hit a free throw, just don’t let him dunk. Speaking of the moment that led the former Lakers star to go after him, Miller said it was Charles Oakley who hurt both him and Shaq.

He mentioned that he just had Shaq down low and it was actually Oakley who landed over the top. “And I was like, he (Oakley) hit me in my ear. That’s why I was one way, like, God damn it, Oak… I’m on the sideline,” the former Bulls star recalled. In fact, Miller did not even know that Shaquille O’Neal was coming after him until he turned around. Further in the podcast, he joked about Big Diesel’s swing at him, stating that Shaq missed just like his free throws.

Shaquille O’Neal’s recollection of the infamous incident with Brad Miller

Notably, the 4x NBA champ had also discussed this incident in an episode of his ‘Big Podcast with Shaq’. Shaq stated he had already warned Miller to not commit a foul against him with hits on the neck. However, the physicality of the foul involving both Miller and Charles Oakley, as stated by Miller, could not prevent the Lakers star from losing his cool. But Shaquille O’Neal still did not want to hit Miller, as per his statement on his podcast. 

“I didn’t wanna hit him on the back, but as soon as he turns to the side, I wanted to bust his eardrums up that’s all. I wanted him to hear f*cking tweety birds for the rest of his life,” Shaq stated. The former Lakers star mentioned he pulled his throw at the last moment, thanks to his police training.

The reason for this, as stated by him, is that he knew what the Bulls’ strategy against him was. He knew the Bulls did not want him to dunk but limited him to the free-throw line. Nevertheless, whether it is that Shaq missed, or he pulled back his punch, it was a fortunate thing that he did not hit Miller else the incident could have led to worst-case scenarios as well.