Former Los Angeles Lakers great center Shaquille O’Neal enjoyed a 19-year NBA career, playing for six different teams: Orlando Magic, Lakers, Miami Heat, Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics.
Playing that many years for that many different teams, O’Neal had hundreds of different players that he was able to call a teammate throughout the course of his career.
Throughout the years O’Neal earned many accomplishments, including an NBA Most Valuable Player award in 1999-2000 with the Lakers, and set many records.
But he has one record that still stands to this day, and in fact is still growing larger each year. According to TNT’s “EJ’s Neat-O Stat of the Night”, that host Ernie Johnson presents each week, a teammate of O’Neal’s has won the NBA championship every year since 1984:
EJ's Neat-O Stat of the Night: Every NBA champion since 1984 has had a player whose been a teammate of @SHAQ ? #InsidetheNBA pic.twitter.com/etblaFNJak
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) May 22, 2017
With four teams currently vying for the 2017 championship, O’Neal’s record is in good hands as he has at least one teammate on every team remaining: LeBron James of the Cavaliers, Avery Bradley of the Celtics, Danny Green of the San Antonio Spurs and Matt Barnes of the Golden State Warriors.
While it could be considered a bit of a coincidence that he has had a teammate win the championship for 34 consecutive years, it does say a lot about O’Neal’s time in the NBA, and perhaps his impact on teammates drive to win championships.