Shaquille O’Neal is known for being one of the most dominant NBA players to ever live. The main reason why he was such a force is no secret: he was bigger than everyone else. However, the NBA legend recently revealed that he was bigger than previously thought.
While talking to Tom Brady on SiriusXM Sports, O’Neal divulged how much he weighed during his prime while on the Lakers. The four-time champion said he weighed 285 pounds as a rookie with the Magic but added some muscle in order to deal with the onslaught of fouls he started to face in the NBA. But then he started to let himself go a bit.
“In our first championship I was 345 [pounds] and then had a great summer, came back 385 for the second one,” O’Neal said. “Last championship I was 415.”
Shaquille O’Neal says that he weighed 415 pounds during the Lakers’ championship run in 2002 🤯
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) October 28, 2023
He was listed at just 325 pounds that season.
(via @SIRIUSXM)pic.twitter.com/cauQtsj5uF
For comparison, O’Neal was listed at 325 pounds during Los Angeles’s three-peat from 2000 to 2002. If O’Neal really did weight 415 pounds, that would make him the heaviest player in NBA history. No player has ever officially weighted more than 400 pounds—but the extra weight never deterred him.
O’Neal was named Finals MVP for all three championship runs and his dominance during that stretch cemented him as one of the best players to ever step on the hardwood.
