Shaquille O'Neal

Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal (born March 6, 1972), nicknamed "Shaq" , is an American professional basketball player, rapper, actor, reserve police officer and a U.S. Deputy Marshal. He is widely perceived as one of the most dominant players in the history of the NBA. Standing at and weighing , he is one of the heaviest players ever to play in the NBA. Throughout his 17 year career, O'Neal has used his size and strength to overpower opponents for points and rebounds. With the retirement of Lindsey Hunter on March 5, 2010, O'Neal is currently the oldest active player in the NBA.

Following a standout career at Louisiana State University, O'Neal was drafted by the Orlando Magic with the first overall pick in the 1992 NBA Draft. He quickly became one of the top centers in the league, winning Rookie of the year in 1992-93 and later leading his team to the 1995 NBA Finals. After 4 years with the Magic, O'Neal signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Lakers. He won three consecutive championships, playing alongside Kobe Bryant, in 2000, 2001, and 2002. However O'Neal's relationship with Bryant eventually declined into a feud, leading to his trade to the Miami Heat in 2004. He won his fourth NBA championship in 2006, but was traded midway through the season just a year and a half later to the Phoenix Suns. After a season-and-a-half with the Suns, O'Neal was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he played alongside LeBron James in the 2009–10 season.

O'Neal's individual accolades include the 1999-00 MVP award, the 1992–93 NBA Rookie of the Year award, 15 All-Star game selections, 3 All-Star Game MVPs, 3 Finals MVPs, 2 scoring titles, 14 All-NBA team selections, and 3 NBA All-Defensive Team selections. He is one of only three players to win NBA MVP, All-Star game MVP and Finals MVP awards in the same year (2000) the other players are Willis Reed in 1970 and Michael Jordan two times in 1996 and 1998. He currently ranks 5th all-time in points scored, 6th in field goals, 14th in rebounds, and 7th in blocks.

In addition to his basketball career, O'Neal has released 4 rap albums, with his first, Shaq Diesel, going platinum. He has also appeared in numerous films and has starred in his own reality shows, Shaq's Big Challenge and Shaq Vs.

The Biography appearing in this section is attributed to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaquille_O'Neal. Portions of this Biography may be available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, version 3.0 or any later version, available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. Additional terms may apply. See Wikipedia Terms of Use for details.