The One and Only Three for the Big Diesel

Before we dive in, let‘s get this out of the way – the towering NBA legend Shaquille O‘Neal made just one three-pointer out of 22 attempts during his illustrious 19-year professional career. For a player so dominant in the paint, bombing away from long distance was never integral to his game.

Background on Shaq‘s Powerful Playing Style

Standing 7-foot-1 and weighing well over 300 pounds in his prime, Shaq was a true physical specimen. He used his superhuman blend of size, strength and athleticism to overpower opponents down low on a nightly basis. Dunks, drop-steps and baby hooks in the lane – not step-back three‘s – were his go-to moves.

With soft hands and tremendous footwork for a huge man, Shaq could catch difficult entries passes in traffic and smoothly manuever his way to bucket. His sheer physical presence forced teams to double, and sometimes triple-team him. All that attention inside opened up scoring opportunities for talented perimeter teammates like Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade.

The Story Behind Shaq‘s Lone Made Trey

It was the 1995-1996 season. A young, 23-year-old Shaq was in his last year playing for the Orlando Magic, the team that drafted him No. 1 overall in 1992. He was already a 2-time All-Star at this point.

On April 11, 1996 against the Milwaukee Bucks, Shaq hoisted and made his first ever three-pointer late in the 3rd quarter. And that was the one and only make from downtown of his entire career. It seemed almost like a novelty at the time – Shaq having a chuckle by launching one from outside for just the heck of it.

Rather than being an integral skill that teams planned for and defended, three-point shooting was more of a "just for fun" sideshow trick in Shaq‘s arsenal. Over the years, he pulled it out only a handful of times. And on all but one occasion, his shots failed to hit the bottom of the net.

How Shaq Compared to Other Stars from Distance

In addition to his lone make, Shaq bricked 21 shots from three-point range. Math tells us that‘s a frigid shooting percentage of 4.5%. How bad is that? Of modern NBA superstars with at least 20 career three-point attempts:

• Michael Jordan shot 32.7%
• Kobe Bryant shot 32.9%
• LeBron James shoots 34.2%
• Stephen Curry shoots a scorching 43.1%

So while Shaq ranks among the all-time greats in scoring average, field goals made and dunks thrown down, three-point marksmanship is an area where he claims no bragging rights whatsoever. In fact, of all players with 20 or more attempts, Shaq‘s 4.5% clip is the worst in NBA history.

How Other Legendary Big Men Measured Up

Shaq‘s brilliance came from dominating on the inside, not on the outside. How did other legendary big men of the 80s, 90s and 2000s fare as three-point shooters? Here‘s a quick breakdown:

As the table shows, few true classic centers had true shooting range. Hakeem failed to make any of his 9 career three-point tries. Patrick Ewing made just one trey as well. David Robinson and Tim Duncan had some modest success but nothing more. Yao Ming was quite unique for a 7-foot-6 player to have over 300 attempts from downtown – and he nearly shot a respectable 24% on them.

Evolution to Modern Stretch-Fives

While musclebound back-to-basket brutes used to dominate the paint, the game has evolved to feature outside shooting from all positions. 7-foot sharpshooting big men like Dirk Nowitzki and Kristaps Porzingis now spread the floor and bomb threes freely. Would Shaq have extended his range had he come up in this era?

We‘ve since seen other monstrous centers add three-point shooting as well. Brook Lopez, Karl-Anthony Towns and Joel Embiid are true seven-foot behemoths who drain well over 100 treys per year. Had he played in this age, its conceivable Shaq too could have stepped outside to become a larger-than-life "stretch five".

With his touch, footwork and basketball IQ – not to mention four shooters surrounding him to kick to – Shaq taking and making threes could have conceivably elevated those Lakers teams with Kobe to even greater heights.

The Big Picture on the Big Diesel

In the end, Shaq‘s living-legend career and legacy hardly suffers due to a lack of three-point marksmanship. His game was sheer dominance of the post – a one-man wrecking ball of points, dunks and blocked shots during his prime years. He played the style he needed to, and did more than alright racking up rings and MVP trophies along the way.

Considering everything accomplished without a three-point shot as a featured weapon, it‘s incredible to imagine what could have been with it added to his arsenal. What if Shaq did shoot more threes earlier on to force opponents into impossible quandaries? The possibilities boggle the mind. Alas, the Big Fella largely stayed home on the block, and still powered his way to the Hall of Fame.

So while we look on in awe today at towering snipers like Embiid and Towns raining threes, remember when O‘Neal was this unstoppable giant who terrorized the paint game after game throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Appreciate that historical greatness for what it was – sheer inside dominance personified…with a single flickering long-range make mixed in as perhaps the quirkiest stat of a legandary career.