"I had a little tear in my eye": Shaquille O'Neal once admitted that Derrick Coleman embarrassed him so hard in front of his parents

Shaquille O'Neal has always taken pride in only getting posterized three times during his NBA career. However, O'Neal was embarrassed so hard by Derrick Coleman in front of his parents in New Jersey that he shed a tear. Coleman added salt to the wound when he wagged his fingers on Shaq's face.

In an early episode of "Open Court" on NBA TV in 2011, the crew discussed their most embarrassing moments. The LA Lakers legend opened up about getting dunked on by Coleman, who was playing for the New Jersey Nets at the time.

"One time in New Jersey, I'm from Newark, in front of all the fans playing against Derrick Coleman," O'Neal said. "If you don't know Derrick Coleman, he's left-handed, and he's a beast. Derrick has me on the block. He takes one dribble, two dribbles, drop step and hit me a little elbow and dunked it. I didn't know he dunked it until I came down and the ball hit me in the face.

"And when I turned around to him, he did me like that (finger wag). I looked up and my mom and dad, there were like (face palm). I went to the bench with a little tear in my eye."

Shaquille O'Neal got so mad about getting posterized that when the Orlando Magic played the New Jersey Nets again later that season, he broke the backboard on Apr. 23, 1993. The game was delayed, as the arena personnel had to set up a new backboard and clean up the broken glass.

O'Neal's backboard-breaking antics led to the NBA changing the equipment and reinforce it, so that it won't happen again. Meanwhile, Coleman discussed dunking on Shaq in an episode of the "Knuckleheads" podcast in 2020.

"We're going back and forth, laughing, talking sh*t," Coleman said. "When I drove that b*tch and banged it on his motherf***ing head, I hit him with that."

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Who are the other two players who posterized Shaquille O'Neal?

Some fans might call out Shaquille O'Neal for bragging about being posterized three times in his legendary career. However, O'Neal explained what he means by being dunked on and the difference between being dunked by.

"I got about 30 dunk-bys, and I got about seven like not paying attention tip dunks," O'Neal said on the 'Knuckleheads' podcast. "But dunk on, chest-to-chest, balls-to-balls only got one or two of them, and I take pride in that."

The other two players who posterized Shaq besides Derrick Coleman, it was Michael Jordan and eight-year NBA veteran Tim Perry.

"The first person to dunk on me was Derrick Coleman, drop step with the left hand," O'Neal said. "The second person, Tim Perry, got me baseline. And then Michael Jordan."

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