NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal was one of the most dominant centers the NBA has ever seen. In his prime, no one could stop O’Neal and his powerful offense. Throughout his career, Shaq has embarrassed many superstars and even legends with his monstrous poster dunks. Notable victims of his poster dunks were David Robinson and Chris Dudley.
Recently on his podcast, Shaquille O’Neal made a bold claim about never being dunked on in his entire basketball career. He stated that he has been dunked by many superstars in the league but no one has dunked on him. According to Shaq, there’s a distinct difference between being dunked by and being dunked on. Shaq even stated that while players have gotten past him or dunked near his vicinity no one has completely overpowered him face to face properly during a dunk.
I’ve been dunked by it thousands of times. You know the dunk by is like if I’m there for a rebound and the ball goes up and I’m not paying attention, the guy like gets it. Dunk on to me is chest to chest. I see you coming, alright, okay, then I challenge you.
Shaquille O’Neal via The Big Podcast
O’Neal’s claim about never getting dunked just shows his defensive prowess, especially in the post. Even with a great scoring bag, O’Neal was a great defender as well. Shaq’s dominance remains largely untouched, and will certainly go down as the top 5 centers in NBA history.
O’Neal was certainly the biggest and the strongest player on the court, players have even stated in the post-game interviews about having ice bags on after a game with the Big Diesel. With his great strength, O’Neal went on to win 3 straight championships with the Los Angeles Lakers and even winning the 3 Finals MVP alongside.
Shaquille O’Neal talks about his dunk on Chris Dudley
Shaquille O’Neal has certainly dunked on many superstars in the NBA. The most known being against Chris Dudley in 1999. The game was between the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks. During the game, it was seen that Dudley had committed a flagrant foul on O’Neal which was a dirty play.
The foul became a motivation for O’Neal as he then went on to have one of the most disrespectful dunks in NBA history. O’Neal overpowered Dudley with his size and strength, which made him stumble onto to back and fall to the ground. On the podcast “The Old Man and The Three” Shaq talked about why he dunked on Dudley.
Shaq stated the reason was that the Knicks didn’t double-team him in the post and the Big Diesel felt disrespectful about it. O’Neal even stated that he waited for three dribbles but then eventually went for the dunk. To date, this moment is still considered as one of the most disrespectful moments in the NBA history.
