After a 19-year career, future Basketball Hall of Famer and center Shaquille O'Neal is retiring from the NBA. Before the start of the 2010-11 season, numerous places speculated that the Denver Nuggets should sign Shaq in order to help their front court. That never did happen as he wound up joining the Boston Celtics in early August 2010. He suffered a calf injury and never was able to help the team in the playoffs.
So a six-team NBA career ends. How well did he do against the Nuggets since he was drafted No. 1 overall in the 1992 Draft? In 42 career games, he averaged 22.7 points, 10.8 rebounds and 3.2 assists. That's 953 career points and 454 total rebounds. That points average is just the 22nd best against a team and his rebounding average is good for 17th best in his career.
His best games against the Nuggets came while he was a member of the Lakers. He had eight 30-plus point games while in Los Angeles between 1998-2002 (a ninth came while he was in Orlando). On March 13, 2000 and on January 22, 2002, Shaq scored 40 points in each game and pulled down nine and 11 rebounds, respectively.
And his slam dunks on 7-foot-2 Dikembe Mutombo are memorable:
BAM! Two 7-footers going up against each other.