Michael Jordan is widely considered to be one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Jordan inspired a generation of young basketball players who wanted to “be like Mike.”
Shaquille O’Neal is one of those players to whom Jordan was an inspiration. In fact, it was Jordan himself who gave O’Neal his welcome to the NBA moment. A large part of that was due to O’Neal’s admiration for Jordan, as well as the fear Jordan would strike into his opponents. O’Neal got a taste of that in his very first matchup against the Bulls legend.
Michael Jordan Rattled Shaquille O’Neal During First Matchup
O’Neal has been quite the storyteller over the years and has always been an amazing personality both on and off the basketball court. He has a strong presence in media and recently went on the “New Heights” podcast with Jason and Travis Kelce. O’Neal told a story about how Jordan gave him his ‘welcome to the NBA’ moment.
“My ‘welcome to the NBA’ moment, my first one, because I’m a crazy kid, the first time I felt scared. So, Chicago had an old stadium, and you gotta walk up the stairs. And when you walk up the stairs, they play that old Bulls music, that f-ing laser show, come on, and there he is. God. The same guy that was on your poster in high school and college. And he’s there.”
O’Neal continued, “He acknowledges you, but he gives you that look like ‘motherf-er I’m bout to kill you.’ Because I see him and I’m like ‘What’s up Mike’ and that motherf-er is like [stares] and I’m like ‘Oh sh-t.’ And then like you go for a shot and he’s like right there. He comes down and he does a move and I’m like ‘this motherf-er is perfect.’ But the moment that changed it was, even though I’m terrified I’m never gonna show you I’m terrified.”
O’Neal elaborated further on the moment that changed everything, stating, “He came off a screen one time and he shot. I didn’t block it, but I was right there I was like ‘Aha! He’s human,’ so after that I was OK.
“But the first time going to play against Jordan I was freaking, my heart was going [mimics train noise]. And then I was like you know what, he’s Mike, but I have to play well. I didn’t do bad, I didn’t do great, I think I held my own. But I was terrified out there.”
Jordan would have the last laugh over O’Neal, as the Bulls went on to win that January 12, 1993, game 122-106 with Jordan putting up a statline of 23 points, eight rebounds, four assists, three steals, and three blocks. O’Neal would finish with 19 points, 11 rebounds, and five assists, but also had an undesirable eight turnovers in the loss as well.
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Most importantly, O’Neal came out of that matchup with confidence after taking on the best player in the world, and would use that confidence to propel himself to a Hall of Fame Career in the NBA.