Shaquille O’Neal
Shaquille O'Neal ranks fifth in our ranking of the world's best NBA players. He is a former professional basketball player from the United States who now works as a sports analyst on the television show Inside the NBA. O'Neal is widely recognized as one of the best basketball centers of all time. He is a 7-foot-1-inch (2.16 m) and 325-pound (147 kg) center who played for six clubs in the National Basketball Association (NBA) over a 19-year career and is a four-time NBA champion.
Shaquille O'Neal was picked as the first overall pick in the 1992 NBA draft after playing collegiate basketball for the LSU Tigers. He rapidly established himself as one of the league's greatest centers, winning Rookie of the Year in 1992–93 and leading his team to the NBA Finals in 1995.
After four seasons with the Magic, Shaquille O'Neal became a free agent and signed with the Los Angeles Lakers. They won three championships in a row in 2000, 2001, and 2002. O'Neal was transferred to the Miami Heat in 2004, amid tensions with Kobe Bryant, and won his fourth NBA championship in 2006. He was traded to the Phoenix Suns midway through the 2007-2008 season. O'Neal was moved to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2009–10 season after spending a season and a half with the Suns. O'Neal retired after playing for the Boston Celtics in 2010-11.
Individual honors for O'Neal include the 1999–2000 NBA MVP Award, the 1992–93 NBA Rookie of the Year award, 15 All-Star Game selections, three All-Star Game MVP awards, three Finals MVP awards, two scoring titles, 14 All-NBA team picks, and three NBA All-Defensive Team selections. He is one of only three players in NBA history to earn NBA MVP, All-Star Game MVP, and Finals MVP all in the same year (2000), joining Willis Reed in 1970 and Michael Jordan in 1996 and 1998. He is eighth all-time in points, sixth in field goals, fifteenth in rebounds and eighth in blocks.
In 1996, Shaquille O'Neal was named to the NBA 50th Anniversary Team as one of the league's greatest players of all time. O'Neal is third all-time in field goal percentage due to his ability to dunk the basketball and score from close range (58.2 percent). In 2016, O'Neal was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2017, he was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame. O'Neal was named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in October 2021, confirming his status as one of the league's best players of all time.
Born: March 6, 1972
Nationality: American
