Could a player like Shaquille O’Neal be afraid of another NBA star? It is a well-documented fact that Shaq was known for his dominating gameplay throughout his NBA career. So much so that the NBA had to lift the ban on zone defense. This was done in order to provide other players an opportunity to contain the 7’1″ player’s gameplay. But as unlikely as it may sound, Funny Marco has claimed there was one player Shaq was afraid of.

Appearing on ‘The Big Podcast with Shaq’, Marco stated that Shaquille O’Neal knows who he can go at, and who he cannot. “He a dawg, too. He a dawg, but he know another dawg. And what he gonna do is stay away from that dawg, so. And that dawg was being Ben Wallace from Detroit Pistons… He was scared of him. And they used to go neck and neck, and it’s outside off the court,” he said on the podcast.

Marco further backed his claim by stating that if one looked at the highlights of the 4x NBA champ playing the Pistons, he would observe Shaq never really wanted to guard Wallace. “He was on Tayshaun Prince. Why are you holding Tayshaun?” the 31-year-old YouTuber said. Although the former LA Lakers star tried to cover the whole thing up by humorously claiming that Marco likes Wallace, he never said anything against the 2004 NBA champ. “We lost to Ben. So nothing negative to say about Ben? They beat us. The Detroit Pistons,” Shaq said.

It is worth mentioning that Shaquille O’Neal does not back down when being spoken against. He is usually quick and on point with his response. So, him not speaking up anything against Marco’s claims does raise a question.

Analyzing Funny Marco’s claim against Shaquille O’Neal

It’s true that there were only a few who could contain Shaq’s on-court dominance and Ben Wallace was one of them. Notably, the former Pistons star himself stood 6’9″ so he was among the few who could contain Shaq.

Apart from this, there is no denying that Wallace had an intimidating presence on the court. So much so that there is an instance narrated by Steve Nash to ‘The Athletic’, where he ran into the Pistons star as hard as he could during a game. “I think he told me that he was going to kill me if I did that again,” Nash recalled. The possibility of Wallace threatening Shaq is highly unlikely, but this instance surely sheds some light on the 2004 NBA champ’s competitive vigor.

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As far as the stats go, the visible advantage would go to Shaquille O’Neal. But it is important to highlight that Wallace was not an offensive force but more of a rebounder and defense specialist. However, there is still a game in the 2004 NBA finals, where he displayed his offensive dominance over the Lakers.

Notably, the Pistons were 3-1 in the series and Wallace decided to go all out on offense in Game 5. The 6’9″ player scored 18 points and 22 rebounds. And his gameplay included some monster putback dunks as well, leading the Pistons to 2004 championship win. But despite everything, there is no concrete evidence that Shaquille O’Neal feared Ben Wallace. However, the matter of fact remains that the 4x NBA champ not even once denied Funny Marco’s claim.