No matter how good a player is coming up through high school and college, once they make it to the NBA it is a different experience entirely. Every player has that ‘welcome to the NBA’ moment where they come to that realization, and Los Angeles Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal was no different.
Shaq, of course, began his career with the Orlando Magic after being the top overall draft pick and there was very little that could intimidate the big man, even at that time. But, as he revealed on the New Heights podcast with Jason and Travis Kelce, playing Michael Jordan for the first time in Chicago got to him:
“My ‘welcome to the NBA’ moment, my first one, because I’m a crazy kid, the first time I felt scared. So Chicago had an old stadium and you gotta walk up the stairs. And when you walk up the stairs they play that old Bulls music, that f—ing laser show come on and there he is. God. The same guy that was on your poster in high school and college. And he’s there. He acknowledges you, but he gives you that look like ‘motherf—er I’m bout to kill you.’ Because I see him and I’m like ‘What’s up Mike’ and that motherf—er is like [stares] and I’m like ‘Oh shit.’ And then like you go for a shot and he’s like right there. He comes down and he does a move and I’m like ‘this motherf—er is perfect.’ But the moment that changed it was, even though I’m terrified I’m never gonna show you I’m terrified. So he came off a screen one time and he shot. I didn’t block it, but I was right there I was like ‘Aha! He’s human,’ so after that I was OK. But the first time going to play against Jordan I was freaking, my heart was going [mimics train noise]. And then I was like you know what, he’s Mike, but I have to play well. I didn’t do bad, I didn’t do great, I think I held my own. But I was terrified out there.”
Facing off with your idol for the very first time is almost always an intimidating experience, but it is especially true when that person is staring you down saying how they’re gonna dominate you on the court. Jordan was a master of the mind games and he got to Shaq at least in that moment.
As he noted, O’Neal would eventually get over that and even go on to eliminate Jordan’s Bulls from the playoffs a couple years later. And once Shaq joined the Lakers, he was eventually able to take his game to another level at which point nobody, not even Jordan, could have him scared on the court.
Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal would love to play in today’s NBA
There has never been a force like Shaquille O’Neal in the NBA, not before him and certainly not since. And even though the game has changed greatly since he retired, the Lakers legend knows he could still thrive and dominate if he played in today’s era.
Shaq spoke on this, saying how even though he still wouldn’t be able to shoot 3-pointers like many of today’s bigs he would still dominate in the paint as there is no one who can stop him on the block and he will be able to generate more points at the rim than his opposing big can from deep.
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