Powerhouse Shaquille O’Neal Nearly Attacked Referee After Bizarre Ejection for Dunking During Lakers Game

Published 06/07/2022, 8:00 PM EDT

NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal is one of the most dominant players ever to grace the hardwood. During his prime, everyone had a tough time defending the Big Diesel. And all his poster dunks are proof. He was a beast on the low block.

During his time in the NBA, O’Neal has been ejected from the game multiple times. But once for a shocking reason- for dunking the basketball too hard. Perhaps this is where all the silly ejections started in the NBA. It was a ferocious dunk, but does that warrant an ejection?

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Shaquille O’Neal is a juggernaut

The baffling ejection happened in 2004 when the Los Angeles Lakers traveled to Utah for a game against the Jazz. Shaquille O’Neal received the ball in the low post and took a heavily contested attempt. And it looked like an air ball.

Andrei Kirilenko attempted to rebound the ball. But he couldn’t gather the ball, and it ended up in the hands of Shaq, who was under the rim. It can’t get any easier than that for the towering Lakers legend.

So O’Neal took off and dunked the ball hard over Kirilenko. And there didn’t appear to be any pushing or shoving from him. But the referee Bob Delaney made the ultimate decision to eject the superstar.

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After the referee tossed him, Shaq got angry and almost made contact with the referee. He had to be calmed down by legends like Gary Payton and Derek Fisher. Had he touched the referee, Shaq would have faced severe punishment.

The NBA Finals of the year 2003-2004

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The 2004 Lakers squad was one of the star-studded in the history of the NBA. It was full of NBA legends. It included players like Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Karl Malone, Gary Payton, Derek Fisher, and Horace Grant. Interestingly, they also had the Boston Celtics head coach, Ime Udoka.

Some of them were well beyond their prime at the time. Karl Malone and Gary Payton were in pursuit of their first NBA title. The Lakers had an ideal regular season and playoffs. During that season, Kobe was their leading scorer, and O’Neal was a close second.

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In the NBA regular season, Bryant averaged 24 points and Shaq 21.5 points per game. And in the playoffs, Bryant averaged 24.5 points and Shaq again 21.5 points with 13.2 rebounds per game. But it wasn’t enough for the Lakers in the finals against the Detroit Pistons, who won the series 4-1.

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Written by:

Bagavathi Eswaran is an NBA writer at EssentiallySports. He has been playing the game of basketball for more than 20 years now and has also been following the NBA for more than 10 years. After not being able to go pro, this former college player decided to join the IT industry.

Edited by:

Deepika Bhaduri

Powerhouse Shaquille O’Neal Nearly Attacked Referee After Bizarre Ejection for Dunking During Lakers Game

Shaquille O’Neal is a juggernaut

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The NBA Finals of the year 2003-2004