It’s 25 years later, and Hall of Fame center Shaquille O’Neal may still have some hard feelings about the 1995 NBA Finals.
In a new interview regarding a scuttled one-on-one battle later that year between O’Neal and Houston star Hakeem Olajuwon, here’s what “Shaq” said about the popular perception that Olajuwon had outplayed him in an NBA Finals sweep by the Rockets over his Orlando Magic.
NBC Sports reporter Tom Haberstroh writes:
Shaq would later go on to win four NBA titles and three MVPs, but looking back now, Shaq felt he had something to prove.
“He kind of edged me out in the Finals, but it wasn’t a really fair edge out because when I got the ball, they doubled me and we didn’t double him,” Shaq says. “I wanted to show people that I’m unstoppable. Nobody can guard me on one-on-one.”
It’s not the first time in 2020 that O’Neal has gone out of his way to minimize the accomplishments of another all-time great big man. Earlier this week, O’Neal said on his podcast that he’d “tell Tim Duncan to his face” that San Antonio’s 1999 championship shouldn’t count, since that regular season was shortened to 50 games due to a lockout.
Just like the Rockets in the 1995 NBA Finals, the Spurs won that ’99 title after eliminating O’Neal’s team (then the Los Angeles Lakers) in the playoffs, courtesy of a four-games-to-none series sweep.
As for 1995, Olajuwon was named NBA Finals MVP after averaging 32.8 points, 11.5 rebounds, and 5.5 assists per game. O’Neal averaged 28.0 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 6.3 assists in four straight losses.
“Just imagine if you had a global PPV event of LeBron vs. the Greek Freak. It’s probably bigger than Pacquiao vs. Mayweather."
In 1995, there was a planned Shaq-Hakeem one-on-one showdown for $1M. Could one-on-ones be a safer option for NBA in a pandemic? https://t.co/xxvQbiXIG1
— Tom Haberstroh (@tomhaberstroh) May 15, 2020
If one superstar center was being double teamed significantly more than the other, the logical place to expect a sizable statistical gap would be in assists. Yet, Olajuwon and O’Neal had identical assist percentages of 23.9 in the series. O’Neal also had a significantly higher turnover percentage at 18.5, as compared to 7.9 for “The Dream.”
Looking back at the film, a lot of the discrepancy may come down to semantics. The Rockets were able to send a slightly harder double team to O’Neal than the Magic could at Olajuwon because of the fact that Orlando had a power forward without 3-point range in Horace Grant. That allowed Houston’s Robert Horry to roam in O’Neal’s direction while still allowing the defense to recover, since there was less ground to make up.
By contrast, if the Magic doubled Olajuwon, Rudy Tomjanovich had the floor spaced with capable 3-point shooters at all positions. That made it harder to commit to a full double team, since Orlando’s defense probably wouldn’t be able to cover all that ground and prevent an open shot.
Nonetheless, the Magic clearly had eyes on Olajuwon at all times, and it still led to open treys for teammates — even if it wasn’t a “hard” double.
Here's an open #Rockets 3 for Mario Elie that results from not 1, not 2, not 3… but 4 Magic defenders all in the paint and with their eyes on Olajuwon. pic.twitter.com/B445DkAnIC
— Ben DuBose (@BenDuBose) May 15, 2020
It’s worth noting that O’Neal has been quite gracious in the past when it comes to Olajuwon. For example, in 2019, Shaq listed “The Dream” in his all-time starting five. So in that respect, O’Neal’s somewhat harsh comments in his new NBC interview are something of an outlier.
In the end, regardless of what’s said after the fact, history will likely side with Olajuwon on this angle — considering that his team won the 1995 Finals in a clean sweep. As for the merits of O’Neal’s argument about their one-on-one play, there’s ample footage and data for us to review.
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