Why wasn't Shaquille O'Neal on the Dream Team in 1992? NBA legends snub from legendary squad expl

Publish date: 2024-06-24

Shaquille O'Neal was almost a member of the Deam Team, but Team USA ended up going in another direction. At the time, the future Hall of Famer was dominating at LSU.

As everyone knows, the Dream Team is widely regarded as the greatest basketball team ever assembled. It featured a long list of future Hall of Famers like Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.

While the roster mainly consisted of the NBA's top stars, they left the final spot open for a college player. Among those in consideration was Shaquille O'Neal. However, they ended up selecting Duke star Christian Laettner instead.

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Part of why Team USA went with Laettner is because he was the biggest star in college basketball at the time and was a year older. In 1992 he led Duke to their second-straight national championship while averaging close to 22 points per game.

As the more proven player with the potential to be a star, Laettner seemed like the obvious choice. In the end, it really didn't matter who they picked. Neither player was getting playing time over the array of star players in front of them.

In that same year, Shaq led the charge for LSU with averages of 24.1 points, 14.0 rebounds and 5.0 blocks.

Shaq went on to have a better career than Laettner

While Christian Laettner might have had a better college career, Shaquille O'Neal was much more dominant in the NBA. Both played in the league for over a decade, but the superstar center clearly had much more success.

For starters, Shaq was picked ahead of Laettner in the 1992 NBA Draft. The Orlando Magic took him with the No. 1 pick, while the Duke star fell to the Minnesota Timberwolves with the No. 3 pick.

In 13 seasons, Laettner averaged 12.8 points and 6.7 rebounds while bouncing around the league. His only accolades are being a one-time All-Star and making an All-Rookie team.

As for Shaq, he went on to become one of the most dominant big men in NBA history. He won five championships, took home an MVP award and led the league in scoring on multiple occasions. Most importantly, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

The only blemish on the Dream Team roster is that every player but one made it to the Hall of Fame. That player was Laettner. Had they chosen Shaq instead, they would have had a complete team of Hall of Famers.

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