Shaquille O'Neal spent 19 seasons in the NBA and made more than his fair share of highlight plays during that time, but which was the best? Well, during O'Neal's appearance on GOAT Talk on Complex with his son Myles, he was asked to name his greatest highlight and the 52-year-old went with his dunk on Chris Dudley in 1999.
"I'm at the Forum, and I take a bounce, and Chris Dudley is on me," O'Neal said. "It's against my religion if you don't double-team me. It means you're not showing me proper respect. Now he's trying to use his strength, and the double is not coming. I'm like, 'What the f***?' So I take another bounce, he's doing this, so now I'm pissed.
"So now I just take another bounce, drop step, dunk, try to put my nuts all on his freaking face," O'Neal continued. "Like just open up the legs, the dunkman pose, and then when I was coming down, he was like, 'Oooh,' and I was like, 'F*** off me,' and I pushed him."
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As far as disrespectful plays go, I would rank that at the top. Everything that came after the dunk was so disrespectful, and I can't be too harsh on Dudley for reacting in that manner. Most people in his shoes would have been extremely frustrated as well.
Dudley probably should have been more upset with then-New York Knicks head coach Jeff Gundy, though. He was listed at 6'11" and weighed 235 pounds, and there was no way he was going to be able to even bother O'Neal, who was a couple of inches taller and close to 100 pounds heavier.
Men who were bigger than Dudley and who were better defenders, couldn't stop O'Neal without help, so how on earth could he? To his credit, he at least tried hard, but that ended up being the reason, he was on the receiving end in this infamous highlight.
O'Neal would end that night with 21 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 blocks, as the Los Angeles Lakers won 99-91 against the Knicks. As for Dudley, he recorded just 2 points and 5 rebounds.
Following this game, the Lakers improved to 20-11 while the Knicks dropped to 16-14. If you had told someone at the time that one of these teams would make the NBA Finals that season, the overwhelming majority would have gone with Los Angeles and they would have been wrong.
The Lakers were swept by the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Semifinals in 1999 while the Knicks made it all the way to the Finals despite being the eighth seed in the East. They'd face the Spurs there and would lose in five games, but at least they didn't get swept.
That brutal series defeat at the hands of the Spurs would raise some concerns regarding O'Neal and the Lakers, but they took off the following season. LA went on to three-peat from 2000 to 2002, with its superstar big man leading the charge. O'Neal would win Finals MVP on all three occasions and that dominant run cemented his status as an all-time great.
Related: Shaquille O’Neal Names Michael Jordan The GOAT But His Son Myles Crowns LeBron James
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