Shaquille O’Neal has always been known for having a charismatic personality. His tremendous bulk, and more notably Shaq’s height, is mainly responsible for this.
Shaquille O’Neal’s height not only helped him have one of the best NBA careers in history, but it also helped him stay in the public eye as a brand ambassador, analyst, and television star.
Shaquille O’Neal, better known by his basketball nickname “Shaq,” is one of the most dominant players in the sport’s history. He earned four NBA titles, a Rookie of the Year award, a Most Valuable Player award, an Olympic gold medal, and was named to the NBA All-Star team 14 times throughout the course of his hall of fame career.
Shaq began his Hall of Fame career playing for six different clubs after being born on March 6, 1972, in Newark, New Jersey. In the 1992 NBA Draft, the Orlando Magic selected him first overall. After playing there for four seasons, he moved on to the Los Angeles Lakers, where he won three of his four championships; the fourth came during the next four seasons with the Miami Heat.
Since his retirement, Shaq has appeared in practically every advertisement, including those for auto insurance and the WWE.
How tall was Shaq at 13?
Basketball players are often larger than average in build, but Shaquille O’Neal’s success was mostly a result of his enormous physique, which enabled him to dominate the floor. Shaq is recorded as being 7 feet, 1 inch (2.16 m) tall, and he played basketball while weighing more than 320 pounds (145kg). He was among the most feared opponents in basketball history due to his intimidating demeanour and aggressive playing style.
O’Neal was born into a tall family; both of his parents are above six feet tall (1.83m). He was several inches taller than them by the time he was 13, he was standing at 6’6″. (1.98m).
How Shaq’s size helped him in his NBA career
The size was a key factor in O’Neal’s success as a professional basketball player. His job as a center was to defend the area around the hoop so that his team could score and so that opponents couldn’t. He was especially well equipped for this job due to his massive size. He scored over 20 points per game on average throughout his career, with the majority of those points coming from his unique slam dunks.
It was rare for Shaq to miss a shot because of his enormous frame being so close to the basket. In fact, he finished with a staggering career total of over 58% and led the NBA ten times in terms of percentage of made shots.
The defensive prowess of O’Neal, who concluded his career averaging over 10 rebounds and 2 blocked shots per game and ranking 14th and 8th all-time in those statistics, was perhaps even more astonishing.
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