NBA
Shaquille O’Neal recalls rivalry with ‘beast’ Hakeem Olajuwon: ‘I couldn’t stop him’
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All posts by Antonio KozlowUpdated27 May 2025
Back when Shaquille O’Neal was 22-years of age, he had already become one of the most dominant big men in NBA history, terrorizing rival defenses sine his rookie season. However, there was one specific player that the then-Magic star feared, as he recently shed a light on his rivalry with Hakeem Olajuwon.
This comes as no surprise, as many consider the Houston icon to be one of the greatest stars in the league after Michael Jordan’s baseball hiatus, as he earned a championship, Finals MVP, and a regular-season MVP that year in the mid-90s.
Those ’95 Finals became a true clash of centers, but it wasn’t Shaq who came out on top. The Rockets swept the Orlando squad to earn back-to-back titles, has Hakeem averaged an impressive 32.8 points, 11.5 rebounds, and 5.5 assists per contest.
O’Neal still posed a threat with averages of 28.0 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 6.3 assists per game, but his efforts were simply not enough to avoid those four-consecutive defeats. “That was my fault we lost,” Shaquille recently said on All The Smoke podcast.
“Cuz as a leader, I didn’t lead. After we beat the Bulls, I let up. We beat Mike, we straight. We done played Houston before, I think it was 1-1, even series. Hakeem gonna get 30, I’mma get 27,” he said on the podcast, reminiscing on his lack of experience so early in his career.
Shaq even admitted he wasn’t focused enough on winning. “And off the record, we had 8 days off. Me and Dennis Scott was doing stuff we wasn’t supposed to be doing. They had a parade and all that, we was celebrating. It taught me never to celebrate too early…,” he revealed. “My fault, I didn’t have the guys ready.”
When recalling his clash with the Houston big man, O’Neal praised his opponent’s greatness. “He [Olajuwon] kind of edged me out in the Finals, but it wasn’t a really fair edge out because when I got the ball, they doubled me and we didn’t double him,” Shaq said. “I wanted to show people that I’m unstoppable. Nobody can guard me on one-on-one.”
