One of the greatest basketball players and centers of all time, Shaquille O'Neal has dominated the NBA like no one else throughout his 19-year-long career. The four-time NBA champion has recorded a unique stat that made him stand above all as the Diesel has been responsible for destroying a number of backboards in his competitive days.
The 7-foot-1 Hall of Famer has broken many basketball rims over the course of his career while two of them were destroyed live in NBA games that forced the league to keep a backup hoop in every game.
Watch Shaq breaking backboards effortlessly:
Shaq has played 1,207 NBA regular season games and scored 28,596 points and placed on the eighth spot in the all-time scoring and total blocks made list with 2,732 blocks. In his 19-year NBA career, O'Neal played for Orlando Magic, LA Lakers, Miami Heat, Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics, averaging 23.7 points, 10.9 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game.
In 2017, Shaquille O'Neal took to his official Instagram handle to post a picture of 'The Broken Rim Tree', which consist of all the basketball rims he has broken throughout his career.
How many backboards did Shaq break in NBA?
Overall, Shaq damaged 12.5 rims unofficially in his career while two of them were destroyed during his time with NBA franchise Orlando Magic. In 1993, Shaq damaged the entire backboard structure with his heavy-duty dunk during his rookie year with the Magic. This was his first rim-breaking dunk against Phoenix Suns that forced the NBA to introduce a new structure for the backboards after the infamous 'Shaq Attack'.
The dunk against the Suns wasn't as brutal as another rim-destroying dunk that came against Brooklyn Nets. The Big Shamrock received a pass near the baseline and pulled off his signature 'one bounce and to the rim' move. The dunk was challenged by the Nets players but couldn't match Shaq's power that separated the shot clock from the backboard after falling on the back of Shaq before he escaped.
Shaq paired up with legendary Kobe Bryant at the LA Lakers in 1996 and went on to win three consecutive NBA championships in 2000, 2001 and 2022 under coach Phil Jackson, who managed the Michael Jordan led Chicago Bulls.
