Being some of the bodily gifted gamers within the league, Shaquille O’Neal may dominate towards all different facilities throughout his prime. Therefore, as a change in technique, the Dallas Mavericks head coach determined to change issues up and ask a smaller Dirk Nowitzki to protect O’Neal in solely the previous’s second 12 months within the league.
When Don Nelson revealed the brand new plan to include Shaquille O’Neal, Dirk Nowitzki first believed that his head coach was pulling some prank. However, Nelson believed that his foolproof plan would stop Shaq from occurring a scoring rampage.
“I believe it was my second 12 months or one thing and Nelly got here in and was like ‘we’re gonna attempt to guard Shaq a bit completely different at the moment’. He appears at me and he’s like ‘you’re guarding Shaq’ and I used to be like ‘what are you speaking?’ I believed he was joking. He’s like ‘as quickly as Shaq crosses half courtroom, you simply stand in entrance of him and as quickly as they throw the ball over, right here comes Shawn Bradley after which effectively you guys entice him, it’ll be nice, he’s going to cross the ball out’,” Dirk revealed on The Large Podcast.
The technique sounded good, and the Mavs have been virtually sure that they might achieve success in stopping Shaq. Nonetheless, O’Neal was already accustomed to the wildest protection that the league needed to provide. Therefore, it didn’t take a lot effort from Shaq to nonetheless discover a means and disrupt Don Nelson’s plan.
“The primary time the ball goes over my head I flip round he elbowed Shawn out of the way in which, he elbowed me out of the way in which, and dunked it so onerous. That technique didn’t work,” Dirk concluded.
Dirk Nowitzki (7ft) and Shawn Bradley (7ft 6”) have been one of many tallest frontcourt pairings within the NBA on the time. Nonetheless, Shaq had a 100-lb benefit over each of them. Thus, it wasn’t shocking to see the Large Aristotle assert his command over the 2.
To Nowitzki and Co.’s credit score, the Mavericks discovered a technique to limit Shaquille O’Neal to merely 13.7 factors and 10.2 rebounds per sport through the 2006 NBA Finals. However Dwyane Wade’s brilliance allowed the Warmth to win the championship.
Regardless of all their heated encounters, Dirk was one of many greatest Shaq followers and admired the latter’s actions on and off the courtroom earlier than becoming a member of the NBA.
Dirk Nowitzki liked Shaquille O’Neal’s songs
Through the Nineteen Nineties, Shaquille O’Neal additionally had a thriving profession outdoors the hardwood as a part-time rapper. Shaq obtained quite a few gold and platinum certifications from the RIAA all through his rap profession. Among the many thousands and thousands of followers of Shaq Diesel (O’Neal’s stage title) was Dirk Nowitzki.
Aside from admiring Shaq’s sport, the German teen was additionally an enormous fan of the previous’s music. Actually, years after his retirement, Dirk disclosed that he remembered the lyrics of many Shaq songs.
“So, I used to be such an enormous NBA fan and I used to be an enormous Shaq fan, I additionally liked his rap music,” Nowitzki informed Graham Bensinger. “There was (a track) with the Fu-Schnickens that I liked. It’s referred to as ‘What’s Up Doc.’ Then, on the finish, he is available in. This can be a bit embarrassing, however there was a time the place I can, his total spiel, I may rap that. I’m undecided I can get the entire thing going.”
Dirk being an enormous fanboy of Shaq resulted within the two massive males sharing a mutual respect for everything of their careers. Regardless of the 35 heated battles happening between the 2, there was by no means any unhealthy blood or drama off the courtroom.
