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Shaquille O'Neal has opened up on his relationship with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. An angry O'Neal erupted for 61 points against the LA Clippers after Abdul-Jabbar criticized him for not winning championships.
Abdul-Jabbar wasn't always friendly with O'Neal despite the two big men sharing the Purple and Gold connection. The LA Lakers legends were at odds when O'Neal was a young center in Orlando and his early years in Los Angeles.
Big Diesel tried his best to win over Abdul-Jabbar, but the latter never gave him any attention. He was consistently aloof and disinterested in talking with O'Neal, which fueled the fire that led to three straight titles. O'Neal remembered:
"You know Kareem said one time...if you said Shaq's putting up Kareem-type numbers. Kareem said 'How? He's not winning championships'...Now I'm like okay. Now I'm fucking pissed."
Abdul-Jabbar's words about not winning championships touched a nerve with O'Neal. He led the league in scoring in 2000 and won the league MVP. He also led the Lakers to a championship that year, for which he won the Finals MVP. That season was the first of a three-peat O'Neal accomplished alongside Kobe Bryant; the former was the Finals MVP in all three titles.
Bill Simmons' podcast on The Ringer's network, "The Book of Basketball 2.0" started a segment called "Icons Club" where they discuss the history of the league. They started from the Wilt Chamberlain-Bill Russell battle in the 1960s to Magic Johnson and Larry Bird going head-to-head in the 1980s to Michael Jordan and the Dream Team.
In the sixth episode, titled "The Enigmas", they talked about Shaquille O'Neal and his weird early relationship with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
O'Neal did a Reebok commercial in 1993, fresh off winning the Rookie of the Year award with the Magic and he gathered all the great big men for the shoot.
That included Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton. Every big man in the room had kind and encouraging words for the Big Diesel except Abdul-Jabbar, who not only didn't speak to O'Neal but also walked off the set.
Three years later when O'Neal joined the LA Lakers, he expected the respect of Abdul-Jabbar because he felt the Purple and Gold brotherhood would help him build solidarity. When he met Abdul-Jabbar in a restaurant in Los Angeles, the latter wouldn't even lift his head to greet him. The six-time MVP didn't even make eye contact or show a hint of recognition.
Eventually, when O'Neal learned that Abdul-Jabbar was criticizing him for not winning chips, he got frustrated and erupted for a historic career-high.
How Shaquille O'Neal dropped 61 points on LA Clippers on his birthday
Jackie MacMullan has narrated the story of how Shaquille O'Neal dropped 61 points on the LA Clippers while trying to impress Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was the Clippers' assistant coach at the time.
On his 28th birthday on Mar. 6, 2000, O'Neal erupted for a 60-piece when he realized that Abdul-Jabbar's head was routinely down whenever he got the ball. O'Neal said:
"So I see him, and I wanna start showing off, so I shoot a skyhook and then I realised when we come down, he f*****g got his head down everytime I touch the ball."
Shaquille O'Neal was frustrated and motivated to show off in front of Abdul-Jabbar, so he dominated the Clippers' 7' 3" Keith Closs. On the “Tallest Tales” episode of NBA TV’s Open Court series in 2011, O'Neal revealed that when he saw Abdul-Jabbar advising Closs about how to stop him, he got triggered, saying:
"I look over to the bench, and I see one of my idols telling Keith Closs how to stop me. I see Kareem saying ‘You gotta do this, you gotta do that.’ Now I’m pissed."
Shaquille O'Neal's 61 points are the most scored by an NBA player on their birthday. It is also one of only two 50+ performances since 2000 that didn't include a single three-point attempt.
O'Neal shot 24-35 from the field and also grabbed 23 rebounds. The final number would have been even more historic had he not gone 13-22 from the free-throw line. He did admit he was aiming for the highest score possible, saying:
"I was kind of mad at Phil (Jackson) because we had 3 minutes left, I was trying to go for 70."
Guess the Lakers players!
