Shaq remember Rockets sweep

Shaq hasn't forgotten Rockets' Finals sweep


By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The bus could not have sped from the scene fast enough to satisfy Shaquille O'Neal. That is not, however, the way things went for him back then.

Stuck amid the revelry on the Richmond strip, the bus did not move. Houston's championship celebration traffic condemned O'Neal and his Magic teammates, swept from the NBA Finals by the Rockets that night, to watch from just beyond the party's reach.

Hours passed. O'Neal changed.

He would never forget that night. He would never sit in that seat again, he vowed. He would never again feel that pain.

"The ride back from the arena in Houston to the hotel, we were stuck in traffic for about two hours," said Brian Shaw, along for the ride that night and again with the Lakers as they seek to complete the first NBA Finals sweep since the Rockets' 4-0 run past Orlando seven years ago.

"And every car, every person that passed by had a broom. And they were hitting the bus. We were just at a dead stop in traffic. For two hours after the game, we had to sit there and take all of that.

"It made him more hungry. It made him not want to ever experience anything like that again."

O'Neal speaks often of the Rockets' 1995 sweep of the Magic, but he rarely lets the scars show. He laughed that Robert Horry, then a Rockets forward and now O'Neal's Lakers teammate, "brings it up every day. Every single day."

Said Shaw: "Having Rob on the team for the past few years to constantly remind him is motivation behind him playing the way he does when he gets in the playoffs."

When Horry saw a sports report on Monday that made mention of the Rockets' triumph, he immediately thought of O'Neal in his hotel room, watching the same report and growling.

"I stick those little wise comments in on him," Horry said. "It was better when Horace (Grant) was here because I had three guys to get on.

"Today, he was talking about it. He said, `Man this would have been my fourth ring if we didn't miss those free throws (Nick Anderson's four late misses in Game 1).' I told Fish (Derek Fisher), `Then we (the Rockets) would have just played one more game, that's all.'

"I know he (O'Neal) uses it. He got swept against us (the Rockets), swept against Utah (in 1998), swept against San Antonio (in 1999). That was a lot of slaps in the face. That made him a better player. That made him think, `I can't let this happen. I have to go out and dominate.' "

He has ever since. With his 35 points and 11 rebounds on Sunday, O'Neal -- in three NBA Finals since he was outplayed and humbled by Hakeem Olajuwon -- has averaged 36 points and 15.6 rebounds in 14 Finals games.

His teams have won 11 of those 14 games.

"I never look back," O'Neal said last Wednesday, though he admitted the loss to the Rockets and the promises he made beginning that night continue to drive him.

"When I was in Orlando, we got swept," he said. "I made a promise to myself and my family that if we ever get back to the Finals, I will make sure that won't happen again.

"So every game on, I just have to make myself known, make my presence known. Guys are looking for me to hit a couple shots and miss a couple free throws, but when I'm getting the ball in that position, I'm playing with that type of energy, it's because I'm on a mission. Right now the mission is just to win No. 3."

O'Neal's rare -- perhaps unprecedented -- combination of unstoppable size and uncanny agility seems to be limited only by his motivation. Since the Magic's Finals cameo ended, he has been known to use whatever source of inspiration he could find.

"Believe it or not, I was created by (the media)," he said. "When I was a youngster having fun, doing movies and doing albums, (the media) criticized me the whole time. So I put all that stuff aside, and I said, `OK, it's time to win championships.' Because I would hear positive and negative stuff. `Shaq O'Neal's a great player but ... but, but, but, but ... he doesn't have a championship. He's not hitting free throws. He'll never do this or that.'

"So coming from taking criticism all my life, I know how to suck it up. I know how to turn it into positive energy. This is what (the media) created. I'm glad you created this."

There is little criticism coming now.

In the past few weeks, even O'Neal's free throw shooting seems to have grown past its classic Achilles' heel status. In toying with the Nets, he has earned analysis of his place in basketball history and comparisons to the greatest players ever, rather than what he could and should be.

"He's so strong, and he's so big, and he just pushes guys under the basket," Nets coach Byron Scott said. "You're throwing it into him, it's not even a dribble; it's just a dunk. He's that strong. We don't have anybody like that. Not only us -- there's 28 other teams that don't have anybody like that. Anybody we put on him is a mismatch.

"I think you have to get Mr. O'Neal and Mrs. O'Neal together again. That's the only way you're going to be able to stop Shaq.

"Whatever you do -- change the rules to try to stop him -- it's not gonna stop him. When he wants to take over a basketball game with his strength, size, athleticism ... I mean, as agile as he is for that big, there's nothing you can do. So if Mrs. O'Neal and Mr. O'Neal are around, if they can make one for me, I'd really appreciate it."

Until then, O'Neal's vow that night on the bus in Houston seems safe. Once humbled and pained, he has more than avenged the defeat. He has turned it into triumph.

"You're talking about the most dominant player to play the game at this point," Nets guard Jason Kidd said. "In my career, it was the tail end of Michael Jordan, and so ... I think Mike is probably the best to ever play the game with all the expectations and what he's done for the game. But seeing what Shaq has done, now he's carrying that torch that Michael has carried.

"When it's all said and done, I think he probably will go down as the best to ever play."