“He’s the only man that had me terrified on the court” — Shaquille O’Neal on playing against Michael Jordan

Fear turned into respect, especially after MJ offered Shaq some advice.

Shaquille O’Neal is one of the most dominant players in NBA history. Alongside Kobe Bryant, Shaq was the driving force behind the NBA's last three-peat, leading the Lakers to championships from 2000 to 2002. 

But as dominant as O'Neal was, he wasn't fearless, at least not when going up against Michael Jordan. He talked about it during his appearance on IMPAULSIVE with Logan Paul.

“He’s the only man that had me terrified on the court. Because I went from high school, admiring him, in college, admiring him, admiring him and then he’s right there in front you and all the s*** you see on your poster like he’s doing it in real life like he came by me so fast sometimes I was like oh s***,” O’Neal said.

Shaq vs. MJ

The two faced eachother 21 times; MJ's team won 12 games, Shaq's won 9. Ten of those games were in the Playoffs, where Jordan leads O'Neal 6-4.

In his matchups against Shaquille, Jordan averaged 28.7 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2.4 steals, and a block, with his best performance being a 64-point outing in a 122-106 loss on January 16, 1993.

"The points don't make a difference to me," MJ said after that game. "It's just wasted energy in a sense because we didn't finish the game the way we should have. We just gave away the game. We played good enough, but we just made some dumb plays. When you blow a six-point lead in less than a minute, there is something wrong with that. Getting 64 points doesn't mean anything when you lose."

Shaq also put up great numbers in his games vs. His Airness -- he averaged 25.2 points, 13.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.9 blocks. But more importantly, he was a part of the last team to win a playoff series against Chicago before Jordan retired in 1998.

Jordan's revenge

In 1995, Jordan, away from the league for 21 months, returned from retirement with just a few weeks left in the regular season.

Chicago made the playoffs and reached the second round, but were eliminated by O’Neal's Orlando Magic who beat them in six games. The Bulls got payback against the Magic the following year, sweeping them in the Eastern Conference Finals. O’Neal reflected on this in an appearance on FAIR GAME with Kristine Leahy.

“Before I came to LA, Orlando Magic versus Chicago Bulls, we had beaten them the year before, went to the Finals and got swept... Michael Jordan came back stronger than ever, swept again. Michael was my fraternity brother, puts his hand on my shoulder and says, 'Before you succeed, you must first learn how to fail.' And I had no idea what that meant,” O’Neal explained.

O’Neal didn’t understand what Jordan meant at the time, but his words stuck with him. Jordan’s advice helped O’Neal deal with adversity when the Lakers couldn't win in the first years with him and Bryant leading the team.