“Felt the Threat Lingering”: When Lakers Countered Shaquille O’Neal’s Poor Free Throw Shooting with a Curious Game Winning Strategy

Shaquille O’Neal played a brand of basketball, that we haven’t seen and might never witness ever again. O’Neal was a menace on the floor, with rosters being specifically constructed, just to deal with Shaq. Even though O’Neal had a great offensive game, it was far from complete. O’Neal was an abysmal shooter, and it showed everytime the Diesel went to the line.

Shaq’s free-throw shooting started becoming a liability to the Lakers, as O’Neal even shot under 50% one year. Phil Jackson, the then Head Coach of The Los Angeles Lakers had to come up with a plan, as teams kept sending O’Neal to the free-throw line late in games.

In the book “ The Three Ring Circus‘, author Jeff Pearlman, beautifully illustrated the predicament that Jackson and the Lakers were in. Talking about it, Pearlman said,

“There was a growing concern that, toward the ends of tight games, opposing coaches would foul O’Neal and place him at the free throw line. Jackson always felt the threat lingering, as did Bryant.”

What surprised Kobe and Jackson the most, was the fact that Shaq couldn’t hit free-throws. O’Neal was an All-Time great, but couldn’t make six of his ten free throws. A regular on a high school team could pull off the simple assignment, but free-throws always perplexed the Big Fella.

With Shaq’s free-throw shooting not getting any better, Jackson came up with a strange strategy. The strategy to keep teams from ‘hacking Shaq’, was to simply blow the team out of the water. Yes, the Lakers would attempt to defeat teams by large enough margins, such that any late-minute antics wouldn’t take place.

Over the next 19-game stretch, the Lakers would pummel its opponents, as they beat teams with an average point difference of 14.1 points. Even if games got close, it was due to the regular being rested, as O’Neal was kept out of games during the last minutes. Coach Jackson needed O’Neal for the playoffs, and he wasn’t going to sit by and watch teams beat the pulp out of his center.

Shaq’s problem with free throws

Shaquille O’Neal might be one of the worst free-throw shooters of all time. Like Wilt Chamberlain, Shaq had an uncanny problem with shooting from the line. Even though the Diesel won 4 of his 6 NBA finals appearances, he shot well under 50% from the line in most of them.

In fact, the only time Shaq ever shot over 60% from the line, would be during the 2001 NBA Finals. Unsurprisingly, many years later, Shaq does regret not working hard on his free throws. During a 2022 interview with Graham Bensinger, O’Neal would reveal his three regrets from his playing days, and unsurprisingly ‘free throws’ featured in the list. Talking about it further, Shaq said,

“There’s two regrets, actually three….Missing 5,000 free throws, not passing WIlt Chamberlain in points and not being higher on the scoring list. Those are my only three regrets.” 

Even though Shaq never got into the groove while shooting his free throws, he still remained dominant. In fact, Shaq is considered as one of the greatest center’s the game has ever seen. To many, ‘The Diesel’, is the most dominant to have ever played the sport, and they wouldn’t be wrong to say so. Shaq has his jersey retired by over three different teams, a testament to his dominance during his playing days.

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