{"id":119387,"date":"2025-09-04T23:09:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T23:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/119387\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T23:09:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T23:09:08","slug":"shaquille-oneal-vowed-to-destroy-nba-big-man-he-was-left-stunned-by-clinic-says-dwyane-wade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/119387\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaquille O’Neal vowed to destroy NBA big man, he was left stunned by ‘clinic’, says Dwyane Wade"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NBA legend Dwyane Wade has recalled the moment Shaquille O\u2019Neal struggled to cope against one of his top rivals.<\/p>\n

Shaquille O\u2019Neal<\/a> is a Hall of Famer who has his jersey retired by three different teams, the Orlando Magic<\/a>, LA Lakers<\/a> and Miami Heat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And it was rare that during his career he found an opponent capable of matching up with his sheer physical dominance.<\/p>\n

One player who gave Shaq problems was towering Chinese sensation Yao Ming.<\/p>\n

\"YaoPhoto by Eliot J. Schechter\/Getty ImagesShaquille O\u2019Neal\u2019s plan to embarrass Yao Ming backfired<\/p>\n

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Dwyane Wade recalled his time playing alongside Shaquille O\u2019Neal with the Miami Heat, a player he previously said \u2018changed his career\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wade recounted how ahead of a game with the Houston Rockets<\/a>, Shaq was fed up of hearing Yao Ming be compared to him.<\/p>\n

He explained: \u201cShaq was in the locker room before the game. He was getting ready. He\u2019s like, \u2018I\u2019m about to show him tonight. I\u2019m about to show him tonight. They think he on my level, right? <\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018I\u2019m like, Yeah, big fella, yeah, big fella, let\u2019s go.’\u201d<\/p>\n

But as Wade explained, Shaquille O\u2019Neal\u2019s plan to dominate and embarrass Yao Ming did not go as planned.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWhen I tell you, Yao Ming came out and put on a clinic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking about the variation in his game, he said: \u201cHe wasn\u2019t just boom, boom, boom. He was boom, boom, fade, Yao was that. Yao was nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wade was only establishing himself in his career in the NBA at the time, and he says he was full of admiration for the Rockets star.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously they had some matchups, go and throw the stats out, I\u2019m talking about watching him when I first came in the league.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yao Ming\u2019s record vs Shaquille O\u2019Neal<\/p>\n

Yao Ming\u2019s biggest ever game against Shaquille O\u2019Neal<\/a> came in an epic matchup in 2006 between the Heat and Rockets.<\/p>\n

Ming posted a monster line of 34 points and 14 rebounds, while Shaquille O\u2019Neal could only manage 15 points of his own and 10 assists.<\/p>\n

The Rockets star holds a 10-8 career record against Shaquille O\u2019Neal, who never scored more than 30 points against Ming while he was with the Heat, doing so twice with the Lakers.<\/p>\n

In their matchups, O\u2019Neal averaged 22.9 points, while Ming was a little more hot and cold, averaging 18.9 points per game.<\/p>\n

Not many players in his era could stand a chance against Shaq \u2013 but Yao Ming certainly gave him a real test.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NBA legend Dwyane Wade has recalled the moment Shaquille O\u2019Neal struggled to cope against one of his top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,16880,7223,590,14232,85,54232],"class_list":{"0":"post-119387","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-dwyane-wade","11":"tag-miami-heat","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-shaquille-oneal","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-yao-ming"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}