Shaquille O’Neal faced plenty of elite big men during his NBA career, but his matchups with an EuroLeague Legend carried an unusual backstory. Long before the two centers met in the NBA, O’Neal had already watched the center compete against one of his biggest childhood idols, David Robinson. Years later, that memory gave Shaq an extra reason to bring intensity whenever he shared the court with the Lithuanian Bigman.

“[Arvydas] Sabonis was one of my favorite players growing up. What he did to my idol, David Robinson, I had to pay him back,” O’Neal said. “So when we played against him, it looked like I didn’t like him, but that wasn’t the case.”

O’Neal’s explanation offered a glimpse into how closely he followed Sabonis before the Lithuanian center ever reached the NBA. Rather than simply seeing him as another opposing big man, Shaq had already watched Sabonis establish himself against some of the best American players of the era.

“I can remember around that span, he was the best player in the world. And, you know, coming from the US, we always think that we’re the best player in the world, but you see this good looking guy with the long hair making flashy passes and what he did to the USA team, I was just sitting there like, damn, who is this guy?”

The USA Team Sabonis Beat

O’Neal’s comments point back to the 1988 Seoul Olympics, when the Soviet Union beat the United States 82-76 in the semifinal. Sabonis finished with 13 points and 13 rebounds, while Robinson had 19 points and 12 rebounds. The Soviet win sent them into the gold-medal game, leaving the Americans to compete for bronze.

Sabonis’ performance stood out even more given what he had been dealing with before the tournament. He had missed 18 months because of an Achilles tendon injury before returning for the Olympics, but still made a major impact against the United States.

The victory added to a career that was already taking shape on the international stage. Sabonis had helped the Soviet Union win the 1982 World Championship before winning Olympic gold in Seoul. After Lithuania regained independence, he represented the country at the 1992 and 1996 Olympics, earning bronze medals at both Games.

Sabonis then spent three seasons with Real Madrid from 1992 to 1995, helping the club win the 1995 EuroLeague title and earning Final Four MVP honors that year. In 2008, he was also named one of the 50 Greatest Contributors in the History of European Club Basketball.

By the time Sabonis joined the Portland Trail Blazers for the 1995-96 season, he had already built a major international résumé. His NBA arrival eventually gave him the chance to go up against O’Neal after years of competing against some of the same American basketball stars Shaq had grown up watching.

For Shaq, those meetings carried a history that went beyond the usual center-versus-center matchup. Sabonis was a player he had admired since watching him compete internationally, but the memory of Sabonis defeating Robinson gave O’Neal an additional competitive edge.

That explains why the matchup could appear more personal from the outside than it actually was. O’Neal’s own account makes clear that the apparent dislike was not genuine animosity toward Sabonis, but a mixture of admiration for the European star and loyalty to the player Shaq had idolized growing up.