In a segment on the ‘BIG’ podcast, Lakerslegend Shaquille O’Neal made an interesting admission on the NBA scripting their games. According to O’Neal, the first signs that his rings weren’t real came back in 2000 when he overheard Gary Viti (the Lakers trainer) make plans with head coach Phil Jackson about hotel plans.
“True story and I never told this story,” said Shaq. “In the first round, the first championship, I hear Phil Jackson tell Gary Vitti ‘Hey get us some hotels in Indiana because that’s where we’re gonna play in the Finals.’ That was before Game 1 of the Finals and it didn’t hit me until we got to Indiana. I’m just telling you what I heard the man say. We hadn’t even played one game yet and they were back in the meetings like get us some hotel rooms in Indiana.’ But I’m glad we beat Reggie Miller.”
The idea that the NBA is scripted is not a new one and it’s been received to varying degrees of popularity over the years. In the case of Shaq’s accusations, only Jackson and Vitti know what the conversation was all about but the Lakers did end up playing the Pacers that year, just as Jackson had predicted.
What Shaq doesn’t realize is that the Pacerswere clearly the best team in the East at the time and it wouldn’t have taken a genius to predict that they could make a Finals run. They finished first in the East that year after winning 56 games. Reggie Miller was the hero of the post-season with amazing plays that made him a legend in the city.
In the end, however, Shaq and Kobe were able to overwhelm the Pacers and send them home packing for their first NBA championship. While most basketball fans would say that the Pacers were simply outplayed and outmatched in the series, Shaq seems to think that it happened that way because the NBA wanted it to.
That run resulted in the first of three rings for the legendary duo and a stretch in NBA history that nobody will forget. According to Shaq, however, it was all just a part of the plan and it was rigged from the very start.
