"I've got diplomatic immunity, brother," he said. "I might go to China this summer with Yao Ming and go check out (teammate) Slava (Medvedenko in Ukraine)." O'Neal has no concerns about traveling to countries with less-friendly governments. He'll be too busy getting passport stamps that don't read "Greece." "I've been everywhere except Russia and China," O'Neal said. INTERNATIONAL SHAQ: Don't count on O'Neal playing for the U.S. Having accumulated experience playing against him has helped." "For me, I think the most important thing is experience. "I think every other player is in Shaq's shadow," said Yao, whose Rockets have won three of the five career games in which he has faced O'Neal. Perhaps wisely, Yao is humble about his success against O'Neal. Most important, the Rockets have won two of the meetings. In their three games this season, Yao is averaging 26.7 points and 9.0 rebounds compared with O'Neal's 24.7 points and 8.7 rebounds. 11, Yao outscored O'Neal 29-24 and outrebounded him 11-9 to lead the Rockets to a 102-87 rout of the Lakers. Second, O'Neal had 28 points and seven rebounds.īut it has been nearly a decade since a center came close to equaling O'Neal one on one, let alone outscoring and outrebounding him. First, they were not always matched against each other. It is not as if the 7-foot-6 Yao shut O'Neal down. "If Yao Ming played against everybody the way he plays against Shaq, the Houston Rockets would be in first place and Yao Ming would be the most valuable player in the NBA." Shaq literally scares everybody away, yet he inspires Yao Ming to unparalleled heights. Shaq is such a force, such a power, that he intimidates everyone else and basically just makes them quit.
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"I am staggered by his level of achievement against Shaq. "I have not seen anybody play anywhere near that successfully against Shaq since Hakeem Olajuwon nine years ago," said analyst Bill Walton, who called the game for ESPN. O'Neal's Lakers won 96-93 thanks to Kobe Bryant's last-minute shot, but the 33 points and eight rebounds Yao put up against O'Neal left people stunned. Lofting soft jumpers over O'Neal and uncharacteristically banging with him inside, Yao outplayed the game's most dominant player for the second straight time. Yet against O'Neal Thursday, Yao looked like Wilt Chamberlain.
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In the two games before his matchup against Shaquille O'Neal, Yao Ming was outplayed by Seattle's Vitaly Potapenko and produced 13 points and four rebounds against Portland's Theo Ratliff.