Shaquille O’Neal is usually the biggest man on the court. There was no player who seemed to dominate the court like him. During his prime, the Big Diesel was almost impossible to stop. He racked up big numbers pretty easily. No one could intimidate him while he was playing. Yet, Shaq revealed that he was indeed made to feel small by one player: Yao Ming.

The Chinese NBA superstar stood at 7 ft 6 inches. He was taller than Shaq by five inches. It is almost impossible to make the Big Aristotle feel small but the Chinese player did so successfully.

Shaq said, “One time he had me on the post and turned around to shoot the fadeaway. And I jumped as high as I could. He still had about three feet left. I was like dang this dude’s tall.”

The Los Angeles Lakers center decided to go with an “oopsy dupe” finger roll but Ming blocked his first three shots. Shaq paid tribute to him saying that he was very agile and could play inside and outside, adding that Ming would have been one of the top centers to ever play the game had it not been for his injuries.

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The two had a friendly feud with each other during their playing days and Shaquille O’Neal respects him greatly for his contributions to the NBA.

Why did Shaquille O’Neal respect Yao Ming?

Yao Ming was a gifted player in his prime. He was already being hyped by the American press and had his team of advisers around him. In the NBA draft of 2002, he was drafted by the Houston Rockets.

This jump-started his career in the NBA. Ming became an 11-time All-Star and was part of the All-NBA team five times. Despite his monstrous height, his gentle style of play attracted many fans. He became a popular superstar and advertisers ran after him to sell their products. His peak came from 2005 to 2008. He was regularly scoring more than 22 points and had an average of more than 10 rebounds per game.

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Unfortunately, his foot trouble led to him not being able to realize his full potential. Yao made NBA popular internationally, especially in his home country of China. He is now a basketball administrator in his home country and is the president of the Chinese Basketball Association.

What is your favorite Yao Ming memory in the NBA? Let us know in the comments below.