I'm not the biggest fan of this team, but this is still something I could not pass up on because of the amazing deal I got it for and the player himself. Today's entry is an authentic
Shaquille O'Neal Miami Heat jersey made by
Reebok. This post will mainly focus on his 4 year tenure in south beach.
This is the road style he wore with the
Miami Heat and is made of a very shiny polyester material. There is a bit of snagging, but it can easily be overlooked. The details are embroidered in two layer tackle twill in white and black. Definitely kept in great shape within the past 6-10 years.
Born in Newark, New Jersey,
Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal attended
Louisiana State University and became a
2x SEC Player of the Year award winner as well as a
2x All-American and the
1992 Nat'l Player of the Year. In 1992, he was selected
first overall in the
NBA Draft for the
Orlando Magic. He would collect the
Rookie of the Year Award averaging
23.4 PPG and
13.9 RPG. Furthermore, he was voted into the
1993 NBA All-Star Game, one of the few rookies to receive that honour. In the 1994-95 season, he
led the league in scoring [
29.3 PPG] and would help take the franchise to their first
NBA Finals appearance where they were swept by the
Houston Rockets.
In the start of the prime of his career, the 7'1" center would sign with the
Los Angeles Lakers. While averaging over
20 PPG and
10 RPG with stellar field goal percentage, it wouldn't take long for the purple and gold to achieve championship success. In 1999,
Phil Jackson took over as head coach and with the assistance of the emerging young star,
Kobe Bryant, the team
won three straight NBA Championships between 2000 to 2002. He would continue to lead the
Lakers for 2 more seasons before departing in 2004.
In his 8 seasons spent in LA, he was a
7x All-Star,
3x All-Star Game MVP,
3x NBA Champion and a
3x NBA Finals MVP.
In the 2004 offseason,
Shaq was shipped off to the
Miami Heat in one the biggest trades in league history. Averaging another 20-10 season, he made his 12th consecutive start in the
All-Star Game and was voted second in the
MVP race. The
Miami Heat made a run to the
Eastern Conference Championship only to lose to the
Detroit Pistons.
The 2005-06 season would see a dramatic change for
Miami by signing and trading for a veteran roster around
The Big Aristotle and the team's future franchise player,
Dwyane Wade. Although he averaged fewer numbers in points and rebounds, he would turn them around in the playoffs, averaging
19 points and
9 rebounds per game
shooting an impressive
60% from the floor. He would capture his
fourth NBA Championship against the
Dallas Mavericks in a
4-2 series win.
In next two seasons,
O'Neal's performance began to spiral downwards. Not only was he averaging the lowest numbers of his career, he was plagued by injuries and didn't make the cut for the
Eastern Conference All-Star team. Midway through the 2007-08 season, he was traded to the
Phoenix Suns. In 2009, he was traded to the
Cleveland Cavaliers playing alongside
LeBron James. After falling in the Eastern Conference semifinals, he signed as a free agent to the
Boston Celtics for the 2010-11 season. Shortly after they were eliminated from the playoffs,
The Diesel officially retired from the game after nineteen seasons.
Shaquille O'Neal represented
Team USA twice in his career. The first was in
1994 FIBA World Championships where he captured a
gold medal with a
perfect 8-0 record. The second stint was in the
1996 Summer Olympics where he would win another
gold medal in another sweeping fashion.
NBA Highlights and Achievements:
1207 games played, 23.7 PPG, 10.9 RPG, 2.3 BPG, .582 FG%
1993 Rookie of The Year
1993 All-Rookie First Team
2000 NBA Most Valuable Player
4× NBA champion [2000-02, 2006]
3× NBA Finals MVP [2000–02]
15× NBA All-Star [1993–98, 2000–07, 2009]
3× NBA All-Star Game MVP [2000, 2004, 2009]
8× All-NBA First Team [1998, 2000–06]
2× NBA scoring champion [1995, 2000]
On 2 April 2013, the
Los Angeles Lakers retired the
#34 in his honour.
"Me shooting 40% at the foul line is just God's way to say nobody's perfect." -
Shaquille O'Neal
