“Shaq was a type of person that made you have to change the construction of your roster.” Richard Jefferson had high praise for rival Shaquille O’Neal. Straight from the draft, RJ was part of the Nets team and they had the impossible task of stopping the Lakers three-peat. Even the infamous ‘Hack-a-Shaq strategy’ did not work, and the coach of the team, Byron Scott, was out of ideas. And in his podcast, he revealed the conversation with Phil Jackson, and the plans to stop Shaq, which required the help of Lucille O’Neal.

“And it was like, you know, you guys are down to what changes can you make? I said, guys, look, first of all, we have no answer for Shaq. I said, nobody has an answer for Shaq,” Byron Scott said on his namesake podcast. The Lakers legend was tired of finding solutions to stop Shaquille O’Neal and when Jackson pressed him to find a solution, Scott had a hilarious answer. He recalled, “I said, well, I think what we need to do is ask Mrs. O’Neal and Mr. O’Neal to get back together and have another one. Cause that’s the only one that’s going to be able to guard him.”

Shaquille O’Neal is the eldest of Lucille O’Neal’s four children. Lucille O’Neal got divorced from her first husband and later on, married the army drill Sergeant Phillip A. Harrison. Together, they had three children: Ayesha, Lateefah, and Jamal Harrison.

The Big Aristotle was unstoppable right from the first game of the NBA finals against the New Jersey Nets at the Staples Center. He scored 36 points, 16 rebounds, and 4 blocks and the Purple and Gold won 94-99. That’s why on his Fast Break podcast, Byron Scott said, “We had no answer for him.” Even Richard Jefferson last month highlighted the different methods used to stop Shaquille O’Neal.

“You had to have two or three Bigs just for foul trouble. Because if you had one big and he got into foul trouble and you didn’t have someone else, Shaq got so many subpar Bigs paid because you needed to have them on their roster,” Jefferson said, via Come And Talk 2 Me.

Coming back to the NBA finals, Byron Scott tried changing the team in the second half of game 2, but it backfired. As the Lakers would win the game 83-106, and the 7’1″ phenom ended up scoring 40 points.

Shaquille O’Neal and his domination in the series against Byron Scott and Co.

“In the second half, we doubled him a little bit,” Scott spoke to the NY Post in 2002. “He kicked it out and got other guys involved.” Thus, Shaquille O’Neal evolved his game and had 8 assists in Game 2, apart from scoring 40 points. Even the Free throw strategy did not work, as the 4x NBA Champion had 85.7% in the same game.

Scott did not make the same mistake in Game 3 and 4 but it wasn’t enough to stop the Lakers or Shaq. The Center ended the series with a dominating stat line of 36.3 points, 12.3 rebounds, 2.8 blocks, and 3.8 assists. Not to forget, it was the third successive title for the Lakers and Shaquille O’Neal.

The Lakers legend also claimed his third NBA finals MVP accolade for the third consecutive time. For the same reason, Shaq calls himself the ‘Most Dominant Ever’ since rivals and coaches like Byron Scott had no way to stop him.

Stay tuned for more such updates and join us for the exciting second episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and Mountain West All-Freshman Team Selection, Asia Avinger.