How Many Backboards Did Shaq Break? Exploring Shaquille O’Neal’s ‘Crazy’ Broken Rim Tree

During his playing days, Shaquille O’Neal was a force to reckon with. Regarded as one of the most dominant players in NBA history, Shaq made a fortune by asserting his command over the paint. Across an illustrious 19-year career, O’Neal dunked the ball more than 3,200 times. Apart from posterizing numerous defenders, the Los Angeles Lakers legend even shattered numerous backboards.

Shaquille O’Neal was an explosive, unstoppable talent. The Hall-Of-Famer has also compiled one of the most entertaining highlight reels ever. A majority of the clips in his career highlight would be videos of him breaking backboards. From his high school days and a three-year stint at LSU to the NBA, the 7ft 1” legend broke several pieces of equipment.

We’ve seen videos and photos of the big man breaking numerous backboards during practice or in the local gym. However, in the NBA, Shaq managed to take down the backboard on two occasions. Both these bizarre instances occurred during Diesel’s rookie season.

During the Orlando Magic-Phoenix Suns, the rookie took down the backboard while flushing down a putback dunk.

An event that no fan had ever seen before occurred once again in the same season. Later, going up against the New Jersey Nets, Shaq threw down a vicious dunk, breaking the backboard as well as the clock above.

Apart from these two in-game occasions, Shaq has been documented breaking an unofficial 12 rims. A compilation of all these moments tells us just how physically gifted the anomaly was.

Shaquille O’Neal claimed to make a tree with all the rims he broke

Back in 2017, Shaquille O’Neal shared a photo of himself standing in front of a tree made up of several rims. According to what he captioned the Instagram post, Shaq claimed that the 19 rims were from the backboard that he shattered across his life.

Shaq wrote: These are all the backboards I have broken this is the “BROKEN RIM TREE”

Shaq’s “Broken Rim Tree” is an incredible concept. However, he didn’t create this tree nor does it belong to him. Reports clarified that the tree was an artwork called Orange Tree by Alexandre Arrechea. A detailed explanation behind the sculpture has been provided by 21cmuseumhotels.com:

Orange Tree, Alexandre Arrechea’s large-scale sculpture of a metal tree sprouting basketball hoops and surrounded by basketballs, has been exhibited in New York, Philadelphia, and Shanghai. Pepsi-Cola incorporated Orange Tree as part of the company’s “Bronx Flavor Campaign,” an initiative designed to promote awareness of health issues in the Bronx borough of New York… Designed for outdoor, public space, Orange Tree is a sculptural exploration of the relationship between sports and urban street culture.

Even though he doesn’t own the tree, Shaq has managed to get his point across. He’s the best when it comes to asserting dominance on the basketball court.

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