NBA legends Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal were rivals back in the 90s, and the dominant center recently reminisced about one of their epic encounters from January 16, 1993, when the Chicago Bulls hosted the Orlando Magic.
“This was thirty years ago today, Michael was lucky I wasn’t guarding him. lol,”O’Neal wrote in an Instagram post.
Shaquille O’ Neal displayed great numbers
Shaq had a monster game against the then-defending NBA champions, leading the Magic to a 128-124 overtime victory over the Bulls.
O’Neal finished with 29 points on 11-of-18 shooting with 24 rebounds and five blocks. Jordan was just as dominant, scoring a game-high 64 points on 27-of-49 from the field, along with six rebounds and five steals.
However, despite putting up the second-highest-scoring game in his career, MJ wasn’t happy with the loss, as he described his legendary performance as “wasted energy.”
“The points don’t make a difference to me. 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,” MJ said, per Chicago Tribune.
As dominant as Shaq was, he wasn’t fearless when playing against Jordan. O’Neal 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 explained.
