Credit: Twitter
Shaquille O’Neal, one of the greatest NBA players of all time, took to his official Twitter account to share a video of his meeting with his longtime friend and rival, Yao Ming in China. The two of the biggest men in the professional basketball scene caught up with each other during the Asian Games 2023 women’s basketball match between China and Indonesia in Group A at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Gymnasium.
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It was in the 2000s, when seven-foot-one Shaquille O’Neal, who was playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, had epic battles on the court with seven-foot-six Yao Ming turning up for Houston Rockets. They faced each other 18 times in the NBA, including 13 regular season and five playoff matches, wherein O’Neal edged Ming by 10-8, but the Rockets star was 7-6 ahead in regular season matches against the Lakers legend.
The tweet from Shaquille O’Neal meeting his Chinese counterpart was captioned, "Always good seeing my brother @YaoMing." In the video lasting 24 seconds, both superstars of the NBA warmly greeted each other, before they caught up on things.
Notably, at one point in time, Shaquille O’Neal stated that Yao Ming was one of the few players who caused issues for him on the court with his uncanny combo of size and speed. Afterward, they managed to develop quite a friendship when the stepfather of O’Neal mentioned that Ming looked up to him while telling him that he should show more respect towards his rival.
