National Basketball Association

Our favorite memories of Shaquille O'Neal, Allen Iverson and Yao Ming

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Tonight, Shaquille O’Neal, Allen Iverson and Yao Ming will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. And in honor of that, the Hardwood Paroxysm crew decided to take a trip down memory lane to discuss how we will remember each one of them before they’re recognized as some of the greatest basketball players of all time. Below, are our favorite memories of Shaq, Iverson and Yao. Let us know yours on Facebook, Twitter or the comments section.

What is your favorite memory of Shaquille O’Neal?

Rich Kraetsch (@OverandBackNBA): As I wrote this week as part of the #HPHotTakeover, my favorite aspect/memory of Shaquille O’Neal’s career was how amazingly good at basketball, marketing and public relations he was in his rookie year. There was no transition period, no feeling out process, no uneasiness, no talks of overhyping, none of that. He stepped onto the court, dominated from the beginning, piled up double-doubles, broke backboards and changed the very fabric of the game and what was expected from big men. In his rookie season, O’Neal was 14th in minutes played, 5th in 2-point field goals, 3rd in offensive rebounds, 3rd in defensive rebounds, 3rd in blocks, 4th in FG%, 8th in PPG, 2nd in RPG and 2nd in BPG.

That’s insanity…and it was only half of it. Almost overnight, Shaq became a megastar and the new face of the league that was still (at the time but not much longer) occupied by Michael Jordan. A YouTube search of Shaq Commercial 1993 brings up everything you can imagine: Action figures, Pepsi, Tiger Electronics handhelds, basketballs, shoes, clocks. There’s even a video of his agent saying Shaq could promote wallpaper if he wanted to. Shaq was a young megastar the likes of which the NBA had never seen. Oh yeah, and the Magic improved by 20 games with his arrival and were in the NBA Finals the very next season.

Joe Clarkin (@Joe_Clarkin): It’s no secret that Shaq didn’t always play hard throughout his career. In a career filled with great what-ifs, that ranks right alongside “What if he could make free throws?” and “What if he and Kobe had gotten along?” But every once in awhile, we’d see Shaq run the floor and clean the glass like he was a 12th man fighting for a roster spot. March 8, 2000 — his 28th birthday — was such a night. “On the road” against the Clippers, Shaq had the best game of his career, putting up 61 points and 23 rebounds while making the Clips look inept even by the low standards Donald Sterling and co. had set at the time. I mean, just look at how dominant he was that night; it might be for the best he didn’t go that hard all the time — they might have had to fold the league,

Bryan Harvey (@LawnChairBoys): I loved anytime Shaq pushed the ball in the open floor. Because of his size and power, his crumpling a basket’s hydraulics down to the stanchion was probably as shocking as it was inevitable. But the sight of him running the floor felt akin to an island separating from Pangaea. His eyes would stretch wide, swallowing up the space, and he would bust loose like a mastodon sprinting over some ancient prairie. Such moments, at least for me, were not only stunning, but evaporated the fuel of his critics.

He wasn’t just big — he was everything.

I remember him doing this against the Spurs in the 2001 Western Conference Finals, where, after dribbling the length of the floor, he even added the flourish of a no-look pass. The ball quickly made its way back to him. He flushed it home. But it was him running the point that vandalized the status quo. I was rooting for the team in black and white, but for the span of that fastbreak, I forgot my loyalties.

Philip Rossman-Reich (@omagicdaily): There was this feeling growing up whenever I headed to the Orlando Arena. It is hard to describe because I do not think I have experienced anything like it since and I may not have really known what it was at the time. Everything was just so new. My first basketball memories were of wearing a No. 32 jersey in black at a basketball camp or wearing my favorite Magic shirt to the game. It is not one specific memory of Shaq I remember, it is the feeling he created every night. He was one of those players that engendered a feeling. He was enthusiasm and joy personified. Every glass-breaking, Superman-highlight dunk — emphasized with the appropriate sound effect — was met with a smile. It was easy to fall in love with basketball watching O’Neal dominate, mixing tremendous power with deft speed. You did not need to understand the Xs and Os, the statistics or the analytics to know this was fun. O’Neal, even as a center, brought that fun over and over again.