It’s impossible to capture Shaquille O’Neal’s greatness by highlighting individual performances. He spent the vast majority of his 19-year career normalizing dominance, averaging 24 points and 11 rebounds on 58% shooting over 1,207 regular-season games. His PER over that span is the fifth-best ever. He made 15 All-Star teams, 14 All-NBA teams and three All-Defensive teams.
Ranking his very best games is almost beside the point. It’d be like putting the most delicious slices of pizza you’ve ever tasted in order instead of just saying, “Pizza is amazing.” Shaq is pizza.
He literally changed how the NBA was officiated and strategized by accumulating literally hundreds of box scores that over time have been taken for granted. Everything sort of blends together. So, with that said, in honor of O’Neal’s 50th birthday, here’s an attempt to honor him with five games that could reasonably be argued as the most indelible he ever played.
