Former referee on Shaquille O’Neal’s physical dominance & related officiating troubles: “Shaq will get hammered but it looked like nobody touched him”
Shaquille O'Neal is without question one of the most intimidating players to ever step on the court. Standing 7-foot-1 and weighing in at over 300 pounds, O'Neal towered over most defenders while also being able to bullly them around in the paint. Throughout his career O'Neal showed a seldom-seen fearlessness around the rim.
His physical abilities helped the four-time champion dominate the NBA for years before Father Time eventually caught up with him. Given his size, it's no surprise that O'Neal was able to overpower defenders to get to the hoop. With that massive size, however, comes some disadvantages. In addition to being slower than most later in his career, O'Neal didn't always have referees on his side.
In fact, his size and ability to dominate the game were so apparent that referees were unable to properly officiate his games. Even if O'Neal was fouled on his way to the hoop, his size made the contact such a non-issue that he was still able to score with ease. According to former NBA referee Eric Lewis, referees missed a considerable number of fouls on Big Diesel.
"Shaq will get hammered, but it looked like nobody touched him," Lewis said on 'The VC Show with Vince Carter.' "He was that strong. He would go right up. And I remember ... they were playing in Chicago and Othella Harrington was guarding him.He jumps on Shaq's back, and Shaq just took him up and dunked like he was hanging on Shaq's back.
"I was like, 'Wow.' The guy was that strong."
The comments regarding O'Neal can be seen in the video below around the 13:30 mark.
Shaquille O'Neal's dicey past with referees
In 2004, O'Neal was ejected from a game against the Utah Jazz. While being guarded by Andrei Kirilenko, O'Neal air-balled a shot and wound up getting his own rebound under the rim. Without hesitation, he went up for an easy slam dunk. After scoring the easy bucket, O'Neal was tossed.
With no reason for the ejection, O'Neal became enraged and appeared to go after the referee. But thanks to the help of NBA legend Gary Payton and veteran Derrick Fisher, O'Neal was corralled before things got out of hand.
Are there any other players you can think of who received unfavorable calls because they made things look so easy? Derrick Rose during his MVP season is one that comes to mind. Give us some more in the comments below.