SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Fifteen years and four championships later, Shaquille O’Neal can’t forget the evening of June 6, 2001.
The Lakers had established the goal of going undefeated in the playoffs and were four victories away from that feat. In the opening game of the NBA Finals, Allen Iverson had other plans.
Iverson dropped a staggering 48 points, six assists, five rebounds and five steals in 52 minutes en route to the Sixers’ 107-101 overtime win in Los Angeles.
O’Neal, who also had a monster performance with 44 points and 20 rebounds, already had felt bothered throughout the game that Dikembe Mutombo wasn’t double-teaming him. Add in Iverson’s blockbuster performance, and Game 1 didn’t sit well with him.
“I went home, pissed, didn’t eat, didn’t sleep,” O’Neal said. “I watched the tape 100 times.”
The Lakers went on to win the next four games and capture the NBA championship. But that single loss to the Sixers impacted the team’s legacy. Even as O’Neal sat on the eve of his Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame induction, the Finals series against the Sixers still bothers him.
“The year that they beat us really upset us because we set out at the beginning of the year to be perfect,” O’Neal said. “We wanted to be the best NBA team ever assembled to win a championship. It kind of upsets me when they talk about best teams in the playoffs and our team’s not mentioned. We went 15-1. Should’ve went 16-0.”
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O’Neal has an immense level of respect for the fiery point guard who spoiled his postseason intentions. In spite of their enormous difference in size and stature, Iverson never backed down to O’Neal’s towering presence. Over the years, O’Neal realized no matter how hard he fouled him, Iverson was going to continue driving the lane. Eventually O’Neal had to pick and choose his spots defensively, realizing he would get into foul trouble if he tried to stop Iverson each time he attacked the rim.
“Usually when little fancy guys come in there, I put them on their [butt],” O’Neal said. “I did that to Allen every time, and he kept coming back. He showed me he wasn’t afraid of the contact, showed me had heart, and it showed me he wasn’t scared.”
O’Neal admired Iverson for his fearlessness against the league’s best. He noted a young Iverson’s memorable crossover against Michael Jordan in 1997.
“You have to have brass balls to pull off a move against a legend like that,” O’Neal said. “In order to be a legend, you’ve got to go at a legend, sometimes take out a legend.”
O’Neal used the words “fierce,” “monster” and “beast” to describe Iverson. He believes Iverson and the Sixers would have won the title in 2001 had they played another team besides the Lakers. O’Neal also thinks he and Iverson could have won rings together had they been on the same squad, and he considers Iverson to be the one player he would have liked to have been teammates with in his career.
“If I had played with him in Philly, we would definitely have two or three,” O’Neal said.
“It’s OK to have a one-two punch, but when you’ve got a one-two punch that can knock you out with either hand. ... If there was one guy I would have liked to have played with, it definitely would have been A.I.”
Instead, they are sharing in the 2016 Hall of Fame class.