Image Credits - LA Mag
Shaquille O’Neal was in his prime, one of the strongest competitors one could ever go up against on a basketball court.
The 7’1” mammoth of a man was a nightmare to play against in his prime, combining power and strength with agility like never imagined before.
An instance of how powerful and dominant Shaq really was in his prime can be cited from this video of him dunking on Chris Dudley.
It was when the Los Angeles Lakers went up against the New York Knicks in a regular season game in 1999, that the legendary Lakers center came up against the Knicks’ them center Chris Dudley. The game was in the fourth quarter when Kobe Bryant passed the ball to Shaquille O’Neal in the paint, and then Shaq did something that would go down as one of the most disrespectful plays of all time.
Upon being marked by Dudley in the paint, Shaq would simply pass the ball elsewhere but the deceptively agile Shaq dummied a turn and came up with an unbelievable dunk from out of nowhere one that got the Los Angeles crowd going in the building.
If the dunk was not disrespectful enough, Shaq landed on the Knicks center only to shove him away from under him with a hint of arrogance.
While Dudley did not take the play too well as he chucked the ball back at Shaq, Shaq was already jogging back to defend summing up what has gone down as one of the most disrespectful plays in NBA history.
Shaq explained the play years later, and it turns out he meant every bit of what he did.
Explaining the play, Shaq said: “He just grabbed me. He was under me, and I had to get them off me.” O’Neal was fined $3,500 for his push on Dudley.
However, Shaq justified his actions by saying that he felt that Dudley’s decision to mark him single-handedly was disrespectful.
“Because when I got the ball, and I’m looking, you motherf*****s aren’t doubling. I take that as a sign of disrespect. You better double triple on me. I take it as a sign of disrespect.”said Shaq.
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