Like most kids who grew up in the Orlando area in the early ’90s, Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway were my favorite players, and the Orlando Magic was my favorite team. And we had November 6th of 1993 circled on our calendars. That was the second game of the season and the first match-up between 2nd-year Shaq and 7’7″ rookie Shawn Bradley, who was selected one pick higher than Penny in the 1993 NBA Draft.
As expected, Shaq dominated Bradley in the 25-point win.
- Shaq: 36 PTS (73% FG), 7 REB, 5 BLK
- Shawn: 7 PTS (18% FG), 4 REB, 2 BLK
The Diesel continued to dominate ‘The Stormin’ Mormon’ (as well as most centers not named Hakeem Olajuwon) throughout his career. One of Shaq’s most memorable dunks even came against Bradley.
28 years ago today, Shaq did this to Shawn Bradley!
📼 @NBACobwebs pic.twitter.com/8wNCK9ntKs
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) February 29, 2024
But I have all the respect in the world for guys like Bradley, who knew they were a target by every dunker in the league but continued to go for every block. Yes, he ended up on some of the best posters ever (T-Mac), but he also averaged over three blocks a game for six of his 12 years in the league.
He was also a lot more skilled than most know or remember.
NBA Twitter doesn’t know about this SHAWN BRADLEY!
32 PTS, 16 REB
28 PTS, 22 REB, 9 BLK
22 PTS, 22 REB, 13 BLK
23 PTS, 22 REB, 5 BLK
23 PTS, 14 REB, 8 BLK
19 PTS, 17 REB, 11 BLKpic.twitter.com/lqZ24YiYY5— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) April 10, 2021
Because of my respect for Bradley and the effort over the years to give him as many flowers as I could, it was a great pleasure to see him and Shaq hanging out together at the BIG3 Playoffs in Dallas this weekend.
Thirty minutes earlier, I was filming the final game of the day, which ended with a Michael Beasley game winner, and a woman tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I could move. Before I could apologize and say I can’t because I’m filming this for the league, I turned and saw it was Shawn Bradley, who is in a wheelchair because of a bike accident in 2021. I moved and thought to myself that I need to meet Bradley when this game is over. After Beasley’s big shot, I went to the tunnel and that’s when I saw my favorite player of all-time laughing and taking pics with Bradley. I instantly thought about their first match-up from 32 years ago. And then I started listening to them reminisce about their college days and posted a few clips and pics of the two.
It was great seeing these two at the BIG3 in Dallas today pic.twitter.com/1957240027899101236
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) August 17, 2025
Seeing that clip go viral and a bunch of news outlets writing about the moment made the kid and adult in me extremely happy.
BIG3 MOMENTS
A few other great moments from this day included seeing Shaquille O’Neal support Dwight Howard after almost two decades of beef.
“C’mon, Dwight”
Dwight Howard misses a dunk right after Shaq mentions on live TV that Dwight is going into the Hall of Fame 🤣(via @cbssports | @thebig3) pic.twitter.com/Ux78jHIE0n
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) August 18, 2025
A very amusing Celebrity game with our friend Gillie Da King aka Damian Gillard.
“I’m 50 years old. I got 3 grandkids. I graduated high school when you were born.”
Gillie: 21 PTS, 13 REB, 3 AST, 3 3PT
Hezi God: 28 PTS, 10 REB, 1 AST, 3 3PT(via @mworthofgame) pic.twitter.com/IaL8jAQybX
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) August 18, 2025
And then you have back-to-back MVP Michael Beasley knocking down a game winner to send Miami to the BIG3 Championship game next week.
pic.twitter.com/ope2TOMKzF https://t.co/c9nFvFtztT
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) August 18, 2025
