shaquille o'neal was extremely skilled

way more than just big

i will argue with anyone that peak shaquille o'neal was the best center to have ever touched a basketball. maybe not the greatest, maybe not the most successful, but definitely the best.

as the years have gone by, our memories of prime shaq have somewhat diminished. mixtapes and highlight videos show him as this giant man who simply used his size and strength to overpower opponents, as if that was his only competitive advantage.

but shaq was way more than just large. he was tremendously skilled. iq, hands, lateral movement for his size, passing ability, footwork, and - yes, actually - short-to-midrange shooting touch.

from 1996-2011, 41% of shaq's field goal attempts came from 3-10 feet (the short jump hook to turnaround jumper range). that’s a huge sample size of ~5,700 shots. he hit 44% of them.

to give that more context, here's the fg% from 3-10 feet from a few other great bigs who we do think of as skilled, capable shooters in their careers (all data from basketball reference):

• dirk nowitzki: 40%

• tim duncan: 45%

• yao ming: 46%

• chris bosh: 42%

• pau gasol: 43%

• kevin garnett: 45%

• joel embiid: 41%

• anthony davis: 44%

• lamarcus aldridge: 45%

(the one outlier i found? nikola jokic at 55%... which is insane.)

if you don't have the image of shaq shooting a consistent short turnaround jumper or running hook shot in your head, no worries - that's what medium lights and i are here for.

here's shaq turning over his right shoulder (with a few smooth dream shakes in there too):

and here are a few right-handed jump hooks off two:

running right-handed jump hooks off one:

now check out the footwork:

elite skills.

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