On the Court With... Shaquille O'Neal Page 7

  After the ceremony, his mother beamed. “I am very proud of him,” she said. “He made a promise to me, set his goal, and achieved it.”

  “For people who think money and fame are important,” said O'Neal, “they are only a small piece of the pie. You need an education to feel secure. It didn't seem right to me,” he added, “to be telling kids to stay in school when I hadn't got my degree. Now I can tell them — STAY IN SCHOOL. It puts a stamp on me as an educated man.

  “I got frustrated many times,” he admitted. “My mom was always on me to study and go to class.”

  Compared to finishing college, the remainder of the NBA season was a breeze for O'Neal. The Lakers were like a well-oiled machine. Everyone played together.

  Early in the playoffs they barely broke a sweat, sweeping the Blazers in the first round, the Kings in the second, and the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference finals. For O'Neal, it was particularly gratifying to sweep the Spurs. He still remembered how he had felt when they had swept the Lakers two seasons before.

  The finals matched the Lakers against the surprising Philadelphia 76ers. Despite the presence of star guard Allen Iverson, no one gave the 76ers much of a chance. Many were predicting a record sweep by the Lakers. Since the NBA had gone to a four-tier playoff system, no team had ever won the championship without a loss in the playoffs. The 76ers were almost a one-man team, and no one thought one man could beat the Lakers.

  Or could he? Because for most of Game One, that's precisely what Allen Iverson did. Whether he was bombing away from outside or driving to the basket, Iverson destroyed the Lakers. Just a few minutes after halftime, he scored his 38th point to put the 76ers ahead by 15.

  But led by O'Neal, the Lakers fought back. On his way to 44 points, Shaq dunked with two minutes left. The points gave LA a lead, but they gave it up and the game went into overtime.

  Then Iverson exploded. The 76ers scored 13 of the final 15 points in the game, including 7 by Iverson, who finished with 48 points. The 76ers won going away, 107–101.

  Shaq refused to give up. “It's time to create another streak,” said O'Neal after the game. His teammates thought the same thing.

  O'Neal made sure they did in Game Two. Late in the contest with the score close, he took over. First he passed the ball outside for a key three-pointer. Then he hit a short jump hook to put the game away. The Lakers tied the series at one game apiece with a 98–89 win.

  The 76ers never came close again. In the final three games of the series, the Lakers jumped ahead early and then kept the 76ers at bay. Iverson played well, but his teammates were no match for the Lakers. The Lakers swept the final four games of the series, winning Game Six, 108–96. In the last seconds of play, Laker Rick Fox tried to throw an alleyoop pass to O'Neal for a dunk, but the ball went into the basket for a three-pointer. It had been that kind of year for the Lakers.

  While his teammates celebrated wildly, O'Neal stayed in the background this time, soaking it all in. “I'm happy, but I'm also greedy,” he said. “I'm not done. So I take a week off, start working out again, come back leaner and meaner, and try to get another one next year.”

  It is one thing to say something like that, but quite another to actually do it. Just as it had taken O'Neal a long time to earn his college degree, it had taken him a long time to learn how to win. Now that he had, he wasn't about to forget.

  Although the Lakers weren't quite as dominant in 2001–02 as they had been the previous season, they still had little difficulty reaching the playoffs. But this time, they finally had some competition. The Sacramento Kings had the best record in the West.

  After dumping the Blazers and Spurs in the first two rounds, the Lakers went up against the Kings. Sacramento had never won a championship before and had rarely even made the playoffs, but everything came together for them. Point guard Mike Bibby ran the team's offense while forward Chris Webber and center Vlade Divac made the Kings tough down low.

  The series went to Game Seven, to be played in Sacramento. The hometown crowd cheered the Kings wildly.

  For much of the game, Sacramento nursed a slim lead. The Lakers simply weren't hitting from the outside.

  But O'Neal somehow kept his team in the game, which went into overtime. Then, with only two minutes left to play, he put them over the top. He tied the game at 106 with a short jump shot. The Kings then missed a shot and the Lakers got the ball back. They gave the ball to O'Neal.

  One of the Kings grabbed him for an obvious foul. They were certain he would miss his foul shots and they would get the ball.

  But with the game on the line, O'Neal was a much better free throw shooter than usual. He calmly walked to the line and drilled both shots. For the game, he sank 11 of 15 free throws. The Lakers were going to the finals for the third year in a row!

  And for the third year in a row, O'Neal started off the finals with a great game. The New Jersey Nets, like the Kings, had surprised everyone by making it to the finals. But like the 76ers the year before, they didn't have a big man who could stop O'Neal. Shaq exploded for 36 points as all three New Jersey centers exhausted themselves trying to stop him.

  They couldn't. Nobody could. At long last O'Neal was the dominant center that everyone had thought he could be when he was in high school. Like the great centers who had come before him, he didn't just dominate the game, he made his team better. The Lakers won Game One, 99–94. Net guard Jason Kidd just shook his head afterward. “There're no rules that are going to slow him down,” he said.

  And there weren't. In Game Two O'Neal made the Nets look like a high school team. Despite being bothered by an arthritic toe, he made 14 of 23 shots from the field, including nine dunks, and sank 12 of 14 free throws. The Lakers roared to a 106–83 win.

  “He's a monster,” said New Jersey coach Byron Scott. “I don't know what to do about Shaq right now”

  “He's showing he can do it all,” said Kidd. “There's no more Hack-a-Shaq because now he's going to the line and knocking down free throws.”

  The Nets hoped that playing before their home crowd would help them in Game Three, but it was O'Neal's home crowd, too. The New Jersey native made sure they weren't disappointed.

  Game Three was close, and in the final minutes the Nets tried fouling O'Neal. But as Kidd noted, that strategy didn't work very well anymore. He nailed enough shots to give the Lakers a 106–103 win—and put them one game away from their third consecutive NBA championship.

  Although the demoralized Nets played hard, Game Four was a coronation and Shaquille O'Neal was the king. In the Lakers' 113–107 win, he scored 34 points to finish with 145 for the series, a record for a four-game final. He also went to the foul line for an incredible 68 attempts as the Nets fouled him a total of 36 times. Yet O'Neal caused the strategy to backfire as he made 45 foul shots.

  For the third consecutive time, the Lakers were champions. “I was the sort of great player that didn't have any championships,” said O'Neal. “Ever since I met Phil [Jackson] … I have three.” He had learned that even a big man needs some help.

  The way things are going, Shaquille O'Neal might soon be adding another to the list.

  Chapter Eight: 2002–2005

  Back to Florida!

  When the Lakers 2002 season began, many fans expected Shaq and the Lakers to be as powerful as they had been the previous three years. Unfortunately, they were not. Shaq was sidelined for the first two months of the season following surgery on his arthritic right big toe. He missed twelve games. Out of those twelve, the Lakers won only three.

  Then on November 22, Shaq returned to the lineup—and things started looking brighter. He and teammate Kobe Bryant lit up the scoreboard, usually making combined totals of more than 35 points a game, and sometimes as many as 70 or 80! They dominated on rebounds as well and through their strong play led the Lakers to a final season record of 50 wins and 32 losses—not quite as solid as their previous season record of 58 and 24, but good enough to earn them a spot in the playoffs.


  They met the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the Western Conference. Six games later they had advanced to the next round, against the top-ranked San Antonio Spurs. O'Neal, Bryant, coach Jackson, and all the Lakers hoped to defeat the Spurs and continue on the road to their fourth championship.

  But it was not to be. The Spurs were simply too good. It took six games, but in the end, the Spurs put the Lakers to bed, winning four games to LA's two. Two rounds later, San Antonio won the championship.

  Despite having missed several games that season, Shaq posted year-end stats equal to or better than the previous year. Still, he was disappointed that his efforts hadn't been enough to push the Lakers to their fourth title. Perhaps the following season would find them at the top again.

  When that season began, however, all was not well in LA. Late in the off-season and into the early weeks of the regular season, rumors abounded of trouble between the Lakers' two star players. Bryant and O'Neal had had a friendly rivalry for a few years, but now, it seemed, things had turned ugly.

  Over and over, through the media and sometimes face-to-face, the two exchanged harsh words and criticisms. Kobe claimed Shaq had a bad habit of showing up for pre-season practice out of shape. When Kobe extended his recovery time after knee surgery in the off-season, Shaq accused him of not being a team player. Kobe, he said, wasn't willing to push himself and play through the pain the way he himself would.

  The root of the strife seemed to be professional jealousy; each player believed that he should be recognized as the team leader and felt wronged when the other was given credit for the team's success. The feud threatened to ruin the team's morale and to break up the powerful duo who had recently led the team to three straight championships.

  By the end of October, fortunately, the two mended fences, perhaps because they realized the impact their feud was having on their team's performance and on their public image.

  “It happens, it's over with, we just have to move on,” O'Neal said at the time.

  But was it really over? Throughout the remainder of the season, the rumor mill pumped out stories about possible trades. First Kobe was expected to walk away from the Lakers. Then it was Shaq. There were even whispers that coach Jackson might leave.

  Sometimes, such talk can distract players from their chief goal, namely, winning games. Not so with Shaq. As in previous seasons, he posted superior year-end stats, despite having been sidelined for twelve games with a calf injury midway through the season. In one game in early December, he narrowly missed getting a triple-double, ending the night with 15 points, 16 rebounds, and 9 blocked shots. And in late March he made 25 defensive rebounds, the highest of his career.

  The Lakers had a strong season, too. By the end of 2003, the team had 21 wins, including a ten-game winning streak, and only 7 losses. And by the end of the regular season, those numbers were 56 wins and 26 losses, good enough for second place in the Western Conference.

  LA's first rivals in the conference were the seventh-ranked Houston Rockets. Houston's center was the impressive Yao Ming, a player many believed to be as dominant in that position as Shaq. But Shaq soon proved that he had one important advantage over Ming—he was much more aggressive. In one game, he blocked two of Ming's shots in the space of two minutes. In that same game, Shaq passed former star player Celtic Larry Bird for sixth place in the list of post-season high scorers. In the end, the Lakers left Ming and the Rockets in the dust.

  Their next opponents were the returning champs, the San Antonio Spurs. After the first two games, both losses for LA, it seemed the Spurs would once again surpass the Lakers. But this year, the Lakers were not to be denied. Led by Shaq and Kobe, they fought back and took the remaining four games. In the second of those games, Shaq helped turn the tide when he drained 14 points in the third quarter—half of his night's total 28. But the true winning shot didn't come from Shaq or Kobe, but from Derek Fisher, who hit by a buzzer-beating eighteen-foot jump shot to give LA a 74–73 victory in Game Five. The next night, the Lakers stepped over the Spurs on their way up the playoff ladder.

  Next up were the Timberwolves. In Game One, Shaq was a man on a mission. He pumped in 27 points—9 of which came from 11 trips to the free throw line—pulled down 18 rebounds, and added 5 assists. The Lakers won by a nine-point margin, 97 to 88.

  Game Two was a different story. In a match marked by a good deal of body contact, Shaq ripped down 16 rebounds and Kobe hit for 27 points, but the Lakers posted a mere 71 points that game—one of the lowest in their franchise history. The Wolves took the game to tie it all up, 1–1.

  Games Three and Four saw more aggressive play. Shaq was frequently the target—sometimes whether he had the ball or not! The Wolves' strategy was obvious: send Shaq, a player known to struggle with free throws, to the line and hope that he misses. It was a strategy that had worked for them and other teams before. But in these games, it backfired. Shaq may not have made all his free throws, but the ones he sank made the difference. The Lakers won both games.

  Shaq was upbeat—if somewhat beaten up—at the end of the second match. “They [opponents] are going to get tired before I do,” he quipped. “When I was born, the doctor dropped me on my head. I'm used to roughness.”

  One game later, the Lakers had shot past the Wolves. They were on their way to the Finals for the fourth time in five years.

  Their opponents were the Detroit Pistons. While Detroit was obviously a strong team—they wouldn't have been in the Finals if they weren't—few people believed they could play better than the Lakers. They were wrong. It took the Pistons a mere five games, marked by dominant defensive play, to stomp past the Lakers and win the championship.

  With the end of the Lakers' season, the rumors that had started back in October resurfaced with a vengeance. Most people believed that the 2004–2005 season was going to be the last time Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, and coach Phil Jackson worked for the same team.

  They were right. Jackson was the first to go, announcing his departure on Friday, June 18. On June 19, word leaked out that Shaq had asked to be traded. Less than one month later, Shaq's agent informed the world that O'Neal had agreed to sign with the Miami Heat. Kobe, it turned out, would be the only one of the three to stay behind.

  The Miami Heat had had a dismal season two years earlier, with a record of 25 wins and 57 losses. The next year they improved dramatically and went 42 and 40. Shaq planned to help them improve that record even more.

  Despite a setback preseason, when coach Pat Riley abruptly left the Heat, Miami came out strong, winning 21 of their first 28 games. Then, on December 25, the Heat faced the Lakers for the first time. Fans everywhere looked forward to seeing Shaq play against Kobe—and speculated which player and team would come out on top.

  In the end, it was a split. While Kobe surpassed Shaq in stats with a season high of 42 points to Shaq's 24, the Heat took the game 104–02 in overtime. Shaq, who fouled out with 2:15 left in the game, spoke highly of his team's performance. “My team came out and played well,” he said. “That's all we wanted to do … come in here and win. It was a fun game. Merry Christmas.”

  By the end of March 2005, the Heat were blistering most of their competition. Their record stood at 54–18, placing them first in the Southeast. Shaq was averaging 22 points and 10 rebounds a game. More importantly, he was helping his teammates play better ball—particularly guard Dwyane Wade, who credited his awesome center for raising his game to a higher level. Shaq, who just one year before had been entrenched in a bitter battle of words with guard Kobe Bryant, has had nothing but praise for Wade, calling him a hard-nosed player with heart.

  Just how far Shaq and his new team will go in the 2004–2005 season is anybody's guess, but with les than a month left, it seems certain that they will soon find themselves right where O'Neal wants them to be—in the playoffs battling their way toward their first championship ring.

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