Taking away his move meant not giving him a dunk, which of course is setting your defensive bar pretty low. It also meant sacrificing your body by trying to stop a 320+ pound man from getting to his sweet spot on the court.
In order to guard him, or at least attempt to guard him, you had to do your work early. That meant getting back on defense quickly and trying to meet him at the free throw line. From there, you’d basically brace yourself for impact in a collision that you were physically incapable of winning.
When he was younger, you were able to double team him on the catch. Problem is, he got used to that over the years and eventually became a good passer. Then it came down to just hoping he missed the shot or using one of your fouls to make him earn points at the line.
Shaq was the most dominant big man I’ve ever faced. He’s in a class of his own.
Honestly, Shaq could have earned a foul call on pretty much every play of his career. I mean, the only way to guard the guy was to either push or hold him, which was usually considered a foul. It’s almost like he was being punished for being stronger than his opponents. If a defender stood in there and took the hit, he could draw the foul on Shaq. Sometimes being the loser in a battle for position was rewarded.
But refs couldn’t call games with Shaq the same way they called other games. They just couldn’t. Opposing teams would have fouled out all of their big men by the middle of the second quarter.
When I saw him on the schedule, my main goal was to just not let him dunk the ball.
That was it.
