[TV static drones]
[bright tone]
- The following is a presentation
of motherfucking HBO Sports.
Once upon a time in the land of La La,
Showtime prevailed.
- A world champion-- would you believe that?
- ♪ America are running scared... ♪
- The Lakers made good
on Coach Pat Riley's guarantee of a year ago
that they would repeat as NBA champions.
Last night's win over Detroit
marks the fifth NBA title in the 1980s for the Lakers.
- I'm going to Disneyland! Yeah!
- Dr. Buss put together
what he wanted the Lakers to be.
And that was Showtime.
He wanted the focus on the team.
He wanted to bring entertainment to sports.
- How many more of these
would you like to get under your belt?
- About 20. [laughter]
Because of the HIV virus,
I will have to retire
from the Lakers today.
- But then we go
from the Magic Johnson/ Kareem Abdul-Jabbar era,
and we're floundering.
[buzzer blares
- This is a comedy of errors.
- People were losing hope.
My father was on a mission to remake the roster
to rival the Showtime era.
And there was no doubt that Shaq was the answer.
♪ ♪
- Shaquille O'Neal met with VP Jerry West
and then agreed to the deal a short time later.
- Shaq signed a 7-year, $120 million contract--
the largest in sports history.
- I believe that it guarantees
a sellout crowd every home game.
I think it guarantees a chance
the Lakers have another world-title opportunity.
- History is really repeating itself here.
Wilt Chamberlain went from Philly to the Lakers.
Kareem went from Milwaukee to the Lakers.
And now another great center is motating to the Left Coast.
He leaves Orlando as a four-time all-star,
former rookie of the year without an NBA title,
which may not be a very long time in coming
to this fair city.
♪ ♪
- Please welcome Shaquille O'Neal!
- Every year after we lose in the playoffs
with the Orlando Magic, the next day I'm in LA,
filming movies, working on my rap album.
So, when I left to go to LA,
it's like I'm going to my second home.
Superstars and palm trees
and parties and movies--
it was everything.
You know, people always say I don't concentrate
on basketball-- I do too much rapping.
I do too much movies, but to me,
movies are an opportunity to have a summer job.
- Roll camera! Action!
- You know, I think people get, you know,
tired of hearing money, money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to go be young, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok...
[laughter] And have fun.
Ahh.
The day I arrived to LA,
Jerry West brings me in the Forum,
and he says, "Young man, I want you to look up."
And it's all the retired jerseys.
He says to me, "I guarantee if this thing is done correctly,
we're gonna win multiple championships."
And then the lights go off. [imitates lights buzzing]
And then you see the spotlight on Kareem.
[imitates light buzzing]
Spotlight goes on Wilt Chamberlain.
[imitates light buzzing]
Spotlight goes on Magic Johnson.
And he said, "By the end of your career,
"you either gonna be up there with those guys,
or this whole thing is gonna be a bust."
He said, "I know you like doing movies
"and your rap stuff, but at some point,
"you're gonna have to dial it down
"to where you're doing nothing but concentrating
"on winning championships.
Now you got to step it up."
It's time.
- So the crowd of 10,300
is waiting to see the new edition of the Lakers,
and there are a lot of new faces.
Now here he comes, the big fella,
Shaquille O'Neal! [players shouting]
- Even though I'm the Shaq, when, like, other superstars
see me or recognize me, it's just like, oh, my God.
Is that Whoopi Goldberg? Is that Denzel?
Then I said to myself, "They're here to watch you.
"If you don't play, none of this works.
Give them a good show."
- Look out, George, here he comes!
360 turn, slam dunk!
- Oh, no...
- Jerry West... he makes it!
- The whole thing was the logo.
- Shaquille O'Neal was probably the scariest center
that you'd want to play against...
- Shaquille, fadeaway-- got it!
- Particularly when he was really into the game,
when it was important.
Shaquille would run through you.
Shaquille would go over top of you.
He could embarrass you.
- Like, mm. Get out of here.
That's his game.
- To Shaq... both: Oh!
- Slam dunk!
- I've won on every level.
I won on the international level,
the young level, the kiddie level,
DY level.
Well, now it's a must that I win on this level.
It took the great Michael Jordan
seven years to win one.
It took the great Hakeem ten years.
I hope it doesn't take me that long,
but I'm gonna just keep trying hard until I get one.
- Immediately get someone like him,
people start looking at a team in different ways.
It's a championship team now, championship caliber,
and along the way, we had been fortunate enough
to make a trade during the draft--
young fella by the name of Kobe Bryant.
- Showboat--
that was the nickname we had for Kobe when he first came in,
'cause some rookies, when they first come in,
they say, "This is your team."
Like, when I first got to Orlando, I was that rookie.
And Kobe was the type,
he never wanted to be brought in slowly.
He wanted to be great from day one.
♪ ♪
So we're good enough
to make it to the Western Conference Finals.
When we go against teams like Utah,
we would always get swept.
Before you succeed,
you must learn how to fail.
I just hope that I don't have to fail too many more times.
I've been going through this for six years
and I hate fucking saying to myself,
"Well, maybe next year."
I don't believe in next year.
I don't believe in the next day.
- Pretty Ricky what they called.
- He pumps up a three.
- For Shaq, I'm sure he knew
he was gonna have to answer
as leader of the team a whole lot of questions.
You didn't deliver again.
Brought you here to win championships.
You're more focused on everything else but the game.
- I mean... - I promise.
- Come on, man. [laughter]
- Three quick things.
- No, I'm gonna come right back.
- Come on, Shaq. - I'm coming right back.
- Okay. - All right, bud. Thanks.
- No, look. [laughter]
♪ ♪
My superpower is getting mad.
When I get mad, it's over.
- ...Fisher necessarily to take that shot that fast.
- Uh-oh. Oh, and there's a swing by O'Neal!
And they got a brouhaha on the floor!
- When Shaq would emote physically...
- Shaq is violent.
- As jovial and as playful and as funny as he can be...
it was a dangerous place to be.
[thunder rumbles]
♪ ♪
- The big Texan...
- Ostertag was coming on the heels
of sweeping us the year before.
- Ostertag picks up...
- And he made some comments in the preseason
about his lack of concern
or respect for Shaq and the Lakers.
- So the first preseason game in Utah,
he's talking in an article.
"Shaq ain't all that," "overrated."
Those are words that I'll punch you in your face for.
- People thought he was just a big puppy.
He didn't care. He cared.
- Shaq had read the headlines,
and he turned to me, and he just said,
"I'm gonna smack this motherfucker."
And I'm like, "Oh, my goodness. Here we go."
- And all of a sudden, here's Shaquille O'Neal
going down the steps real fast.
- So I said, "Hey, man. Old Greg, I have kids now.
Watch what you say in the article."
"Man, fuck you."
He said, "You heard me. Fuck"--
- He goes down there and smacks Greg Ostertag.
- Laid him out. Laid him out.
- Many Lakers thought Ostertag talked a little too much
when Utah eliminated LA
in the playoffs,
and after words were exchanged Friday
between the big men,
an open-handed slap from O'Neal
sent Ostertag to the ground.
- So, again, we're great in the regular season.
I'm turning the place out. Kobe's turning the place out.
But as soon as we get to the playoffs,
especially the Western Conference Finals...
- San Antonio Spurs have swept aside...
- We get swept.
- ...Lakers in the Western Conference Semifinals.
- So now I'm starting to hear the "you're not that good.
You're never gonna win a championship."
Even the great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar--
you know, they had an article comparing us,
and Kareem said, "How great is he
when he hasn't won any championships?
That just boiled my blood.
- Between the lines, he's not Shaq-a Claus.
You know, he's Diesel. He's the Big Fella.
He's the Big Nightmare.
I'm sure he'll have 100 nicknames for himself.
- Shaq Diesel, Superman, Big Aristotle, the Big Sewer.
I call myself the Big Sewer
'cause I got a lot of shit with me.
[toilet flushes] - You know, whatever he is,
he's one of those personas you don't want to run into.
Shaq, postgame locker room
in any playoff-series-ending loss
was a dangerous place to be
because all the pressure is on his back.
Things got punched. Things got thrown.
Locker room got destroyed.
- I had to learn quickly
how to not bring this life over into this life,
'cause I was a asshole when I come home.
I'd tear shit up.
The only thing that saved me was having children,
'cause before the children, I would never turn it off.
It was on all day, every day.
And once I started having children,
the great Dr. Lucille O'Neal said,
"Can't do that."
Soon as I touched that doorknob...
It's only one guy that calm me down, too, on the team.
That's Uncle Jerome. He knows me.
He helped raise me. He understands me.
He's the only one that when I get to ten...
[imitates sizzle]
Nobody else in America.
My mama can't even bring me to zero.
- Shaq didn't like to lose.
He'll come in tearing up stuff, turning over tables.
In those games when he first went to LA,
whenever the team lost,
the focus was always Shaq's focus.
You know, that's a lot of weight to carry,
but that's why they paid him the big bucks, I guess.
You got to carry the weight. [laughs]
- All right, gentlemen,
let's have some good, clean basketball.
- So, when Shaq came to the Lakers,
they were struggling, and Reebok kind of gave up.
And Shaq was getting a little frustrated,
and they weren't getting behind him.
They were backing Iverson instead.
The Reebok deal just eventually ended.
- No, fuck that. I'm eight, nine years in.
Like, I'm starting to be on the other side of the mountain,
and I do not want to be on that list.
He was a great player, but he never won any championships.
- ♪ I'm the Magic Man with the Midas touch ♪
♪ Got to play the right way to keep on moving up ♪
You only will be measured in this game, in the NBA
by how many rings you have.
When Michael, Larry Bird, the Magic Man,
when we sit down, what we talking about?
How many rings you got.
- 'Cause I got ten fingers and no rings.
And I love jewelry.
- When you sign with the Lakers,
there's expectations
that's not on any other player in the league.
We as Laker fans demand championships--that's it.
all: We're number one!
- But if you got championship players
and you don't have a championship coach,
that's the difference.
all: We're number one!
- The direction of a team is very, very important.
We know we have a talented team here,
and we just feel at this point in time
that we're not going in the right direction.
- We started with Del Harris. You know, Del was moved on.
- Nothing really bad happens in the NBA
until you lose three games in a row.
- Then we went to Kurt Rambis. That was a disaster.
- It's not the easiest.
It's not the best situation either to be working under.
- We needed a coach that when he spoke,
he demanded our presence.
- We need to get someone here
that we're not gonna think about getting rid of.
- And one of us says that,
"Jerry, sir, you need to get me Phil Jackson."
If you watch the NBA Finals, you're gonna see Phil Jackson,
so we know what his résumé states.
And that was all I need in the locker room.
So, before Phil signed, he wanted to meet me.
We get a call.
"Hey, man, we need you to go talk to Phil."
What? Mont-- Where the fuck is Montana?
[thunder rumbles, animals chattering]
♪ ♪
- I spend my summers in Montana.
I have a home there.
- Jackson getting a beautiful--
- The Bulls have won their fifth championship!
- So I invited him to come down to my place
on Flathead Lake, and Shaq and Jerome were there.
Jerome had driven his car right down to the lakefront.
- He kind of, like, jumped on us
about being parked on his grass.
[laughs]
- You've had very few outsiders
like us come in here-- why is that?
- Well, I really didn't want you to even get this close.
You're closer than I want you to be, so...
- When I arrived at Phil Jackson's house,
in his foyer,
you see six NBA championship basketball trophies.
He had a sunroof at the top,
and the light would hit those balls when you see them.
I was like... [vocalizes]
And I just felt like I was in basketball heaven.
He lived on the lake, and there was, like, a little island.
He said, "You need to take that log from my backyard
and move it to the island."
I know it's a test.
You know, it's the same stuff my father used to do.
So then I jump in this lake.
It's the coldest water I've ever felt in my life.
Pushing a log, swim, push the log, swim.
I did it. No problem. Dried off. Didn't complain.
And he liked that. - Submerged.
- And I knew that he probably was, "Shaq ain't serious.
Shaq just want to make money."
And I told him, "I want to be known as one of the greats."
And he says, "If you listen to me,
"you'll get MVP the regular season,
"MVP of the All-Star Game,
and you get Finals MVP, and we'll win a championship."
He said, "No more rapping, limit your commercials,
and no more parties or hanging out."
And I said, "Deal."
♪ ♪
The legend of Shaq in the year 2000--
the most dominant.
♪ ♪
- Phil Jackson, making his debut
as coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.
- Shaquille O'Neal looking for his best season.
- This is a team that is talented.
It's young. It's on the verge.
It's been on the verge,
and yet it hasn't quite gotten over the top.
- You know, now I got a coach with a good track record.
And now it's just our job as Lakers players
just to continue his great track record,
make him look good.
- Shaq says he wants to win a championship.
- Mm-hmm. - Well, okay.
We're gonna find out if all that's true right now.
- My dad said, "Look, I expect you
"in this five-year contract I'm giving you
to win a championship."
And Phil said, "I think we can win five."
- I look forward to this with great anticipation
of having a guy who was legitimately
one of the best centers that the NBA had ever seen
to be the focal point of this offense.
I give books out to players
and Shaq had talked about himself
being the big philosopher, the Big Aristotle.
- Big I understand, but Aristotle?
- And I got him a book called
"Ecce Homo" by Nietzsche.
- Of course I didn't read the book.
I went to cliffnotes.com,
figured out what the book was about.
Friedrich Nietzsche was so brilliant
that people thought he was crazy.
And that's Shaq.
Somebody is the Black Friedrich Nietzsche over here--
a genius.
- Now we're getting into the hard part
of what this sport is about,
because it's about personalities a lot.
Finding out how players rely on each other
and their personalities that fit together--
that's the coach's dilemma.
- Tremendous play,
and the little guy's stealing the show.
- We have the most physically dominant force
in the game inside,
so let's use that to set the table for everything else.
- We had a real system of basketball.
We operated on principles of penetration...
♪ ♪
Pass, dribble,
and offensive rebounds.
If that wasn't available, then we went around,
move the ball to the opposite side of the court.
So, very organized.
- When Phil first introduced the triangle offense,
I hated it, but I knew the ball came to me.
Thank you.
- Defended by Harvey.
Harper on the move, and an alley-oop to O'Neal.
- Shaq grabs it out of the air.
Controls it and slam dunks it. - [laughs]
- We all had something that we had to choose
to buy into together for the first time.
Because Shaq and Kobe were so good,
I think our team got to the zone.
- He got these guys assembled,
got them to get off some of their bad habits,
and all of a sudden, this team started to win.
- My father taught me you ain't bigger than the system.
So now that I've figured that out,
we became unstoppable.
- And the Lakers cannot play better than this.
- The Lakers have won 29 of their last 30.
- Shaquille O'Neal, the most dominant player in the NBA.
He'll be a runaway MVP this year.
♪ ♪
[bird screeches]
- Wilt Chamber-neezy.
That's my alter ego.
Right now I'm just plain old Shaq.
Once the ball comes up, bring it to me.
[chuckles] Drop step,
hook, dunk, free throws, fadeaways,
bringing it up court, look-away pass,
blah blah, la, la, getting yelled at by Phil.
- Shaq was a guy, like Chamberlain,
who did not want to be Goliath,
did not want to be the bully,
but yet he was willing to challenge guys.
Will this guy be able to take my shoulder and stand up?
- The more you whine, the more bigger I get.
And the more bigger I get, I get strong.
And the more stronger I get, nobody can stop me.
- Shaq spins...
♪ ♪
Oh, the extra move, and he dunked it!
- Oh, my goodness. - And he knocked David down.
[whistle blows] - His capacities as a player
were something that officials had not seen before.
[whistle blows]
So we had to learn how to officiate him.
- Great ball movement, but Blount...
[whistle blows] Misses the hook.
- And I say, I don't think we officiated him very well.
He was getting fouled more than we called,
because Shaquille was so strong
that he went through things.
When he was playing for Orlando,
you had a lot of people getting jobs on teams in the East
because every team had three centers
that could take six fouls on him.
They're willing to give him 18 fouls.
And then when all of a sudden he gets traded out West,
all those guys get jobs out West to go as backup centers.
- Hey, we can't call all the fouls.
It'll slow the game down, which is fine.
But if they touch me up, let me touch them up.
[whistle blows]
So now when I wake up 'cause you done pissed me off,
I'm gonna start throwing bows and knocking teeth out.
Now I'm the villain.
- Offensively, he's a mountain.
- That was always the chess piece
that no other team could match.
Like, there was no countermove to Shaq.
- I think you want to see that type of domination.
I'm talking about the whole, total game,
not scoring, somebody who can only play defense.
I'm talking about the total package.
You're never gonna see a guy that size run that fast
on the fast break, catch it,
and be able to do something with it.
- Nobody 7'1", 315 pounds
should be able to do what he just did.
- Sometime he was taking it off the board
and going coast to coast.
I said, "Wait a minute. It's only one Magic.
You can't be a 7-foot Magic!"
- The rise!
- Phil had to be pleased with his Laker all-stars.
Shaq was assertive and devastating at times.
- Shaq, MVP of the game--
is this a prelude to maybe MVP of the league,
hopefully, before the season's over?
- If you guys vote me in, then,
you know, it'll gonna happen.
- Shaq could've been MVP
at least three to four of the seasons I played with him.
There's certain players that dominate an era,
and they live above the NBA All-Stars
and the everyday guys.
They just live on their own level.
They're so dominant, they become underappreciated.
♪ ♪
- Happy birthday, Shaq. 28 years of age.
Just think, 28 years ago tonight,
he was sleeping in a crib.
- Big crib. [whistle blows]
- So March 6, 2000 was an accidental great performance.
We're playing the Clippers-- those bums.
Kobe, you do it.
- Lamar Odom comes out of the backcourt.
Driving Odom to the left.
He's down the middle.
8-foot jumper on the way-- no good.
Tipped up under there, wouldn't fall in.
A nice try none the less by Taylor.
Gives the ball back to Odom. He comes underneath.
Shot no good. Odom gets it again.
Puts it up and scores it.
And if anybody ever earned a basket, Odom did.
- Yeah, and if you're the Laker coaching staff,
you're not happy about everybody
just standing around spectating.
- But now we're losing to the Clippers.
Now everybody's looking at me.
So I'm like, "Fuck."
And now I look on the Clippers bench,
and my idol is there-- Mr. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Time-out.
Throw that motherfucker to me every time.
Forget the game.
I want him to look at me and just say, "Okay, nice move."
- He's got the ball. He's made...
Here's a lob. Slam dunk!
Standing ovation! Beautiful play!
- I just keep going and going and going and going and going.
And then, finally, I had 61.
- Shaquille O'Neal has established NBA history
for 1999, 2000.
Is this the highest number of points scored
by anybody this year? - Yes. Yes, it is.
- Shaq's free throwing is poor so far--25%.
Can't have everything on your birthday.
- But Shaq doesn't want everything.
He just wants a couple of free throws here.
♪ ♪
- It was painful for me to watch it.
People just started fouling him.
Hopefully he didn't miss both of them.
- Shaq has missed both free throws he has taken tonight.
- It was like the basketball gods going,
"Bro, I'm gonna give you all of this,
but we got to tax you over here."
[thunder rumbles]
- Shaquille O'Neal, i.e. Superman,
does have a Kryptonite, and it's at the free-throw line.
- This free-throw thing was the weirdest thing ever,
because whenever he practiced, he would make them.
[crowd cheering]
- Missed them both.
- A lot of people say that because the smaller guys
are looking up at the rim, they're shooting up at the rim.
- You have to have arc on this shot,
and you have to get it up in the air so that it enters.
- He would almost shot-put it up there.
- Shot-put the ball towards the hoop.
- Wow. - That one was a line drive.
- Here's Shaq's dad giving us a little follow-through there.
- But everybody's a coach.
- I used to carry a sign that said, "Bend your knees."
And when I held it up, the whole arena...
"Bend your knees. Bend your knees."
And I think that probably threw him off his game, too.
So he said, "Mom, don't put that sign up anymore."
So I stopped doing that, and that was the end
of my conversation about the free throws.
- I've beaten more teams on the line
than I've lost games for my team.
"We know we can't stop Shaq, we're gonna foul him."
Okay, what do I do? Practice free throws all night.
I just shoot 1,000. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
And every time somebody said that, we beat them.
[cheers and applause]
- For as dominant as he was, there's not a day I sat
on the free-throw line where I was like,
"Oh, man, Shaq got to shoot this free throw."
No. I was just like, "Okay."
- This moment's where they announce
Shaq, starting lineup, and he's running out.
♪ ♪
And you can just see it on his face.
You feel like, there's nothing that's gonna stop us.
♪ ♪
- Shaquille O'Neal does have a Kryptonite,
and it's at the free-throw line.
- You talked about it before, Shaquille O'Neal said,
"If don't win it all, this season will be a failure."
♪ ♪
- The series goes back to Los Angeles for game five!
- My father and Uncle Jerome had a direct channel to me.
Uncle Jerome was security behind the bench...
[line trilling] And my father would call him
during the game.
- Oh, man, he would call me-- "What is he doing?"
Hey, man, you're watching the same thing I'm watching.
"Put him on the phone."
I said, "Wait a minute, Phil. He's in the game."
- Yes, sir.
"Why the fuck am I watching this shit?
You're playing like a little bitch."
Yes, sir. "Turn it up, motherfucker."
♪ ♪
- Invincible Lakers are on the ropes.
This is the team with the best regular-season record,
the probable MVP, and one
of the most decorated coaches in the history of the NBA.
Whatever happens will begin and end
with Shaquille O'Neal for Los Angeles.
- Just play like Shaq does. He dominates the inside.
♪ ♪
- First of all, before we get started,
I'd like to thank my role model, my mentor,
Phillip Harrison.
You know, I was kind of hard on myself
'cause I had two bad games in Sacramento.
But, you know, he told me he says, "You dummy,
"you always play bad in Sacramento.
And when you come home tonight, let's bring it."
- Phillip Harrison, that's Sergeant Harrison, your father.
- That's right. That's my pops.
♪ ♪
- Every great team in every sport,
you can almost tie a string
to a great season for their best player.
I think that happened for us in 2000
with Shaq going to another level.
- Your instinct's to go for the rebound,
and he's just too big and strong.
- Shaq again. Count it.
To the line.
♪ ♪
- Shaquille wants it, he gets it.
He goes to the dribble. He does a 360 spin. Oh!
And a slam dunk with the right hand!
- And the LA Lakers win big in the decisive game,
as they move on to the Western Conference Finals.
♪ ♪
- Shaquille, you've had a dominating MVP season--
number one in scoring,
number two in rebounds,
number three in blocked shots.
Four assists a game,
and only three people played more minutes,
as you were leading your team to 67 victories.
Congratulations,
1999, 2000 NBA MVP,
Shaquille O'Neal.
♪ ♪
- When I won the MVP, my father, Phil,
Sergeant Harrison, cried for two seconds.
I seen one tear come down,
it was like an "I'm proud of you" tear,
and then he military-drill-sergeant up.
[sniffs and sighs]
"You should've got one last year, too.
I don't know why they gave to"--
I'm like, "Damn, man." I'm like, "Thanks."
- Him winning his first MVP, that was a special moment.
- I would've been the first unanimous MVP player
in the history of the game, but some fucking asshole
decided to give one vote to somebody else.
He fucked up history, but anyway...
I'd like to thank Phil Jackson,
my teammates,
most of all the Staples Center fans,
'cause you guys are the best.
This is y'all award. Love you.
♪ ♪
- We went into the playoffs
knowing that the Portland Trail Blazers
were gonna give us everything that we needed or wanted
as far as a challenge.
♪ ♪
Portland came out with dedication and ambition
and were able to take a game away from us
on our home court.
And we had to go back and win on their home court.
♪ ♪
So we'd had this back-and-forth.
♪ ♪
The sixth game of the series, we were up three games to two,
and the team went dry, dead.
Everything was kind of lost.
The charisma, the joie de vivre
was gone of this team.
- Knocked away from him and Stoudamire's got it,
and he's gone.
- And I came in the locker room,
and Rick Fox was saying,
"Are we gonna let this happen to us again?"
- No one hands you a championship.
You don't win a championship.
You take a championship,
and that means you take it in an ungraceful manner.
We were all at a bubbling point.
We were done, man, with losing.
- No more excuses.
We got the best coach. We got the two best players.
I got shooters. I got thugs on the team.
Now it ain't no excuse.
♪ ♪
We hit the moment of truth, game seven.
Shaq, you better play well, or guess what.
Gonna be the same thing this summer.
Shaq's fault. Work on your free throws.
Why is he doing albums? "Kazaam" sucked anyway.
Like, I didn't want to hear any of that,
so this game seven, I'm... Got to come in.
♪ ♪
- It's a disappointing start for Shaquille O'Neal.
Shaq is giving it up
against the double teams too readily, too easily.
- Driving on Schrempf, into the crowd.
Can't finish it. O'Neal...
[whistle blows]
- Phil Jackson needs a time-out quickly.
- We're down 15 points, and I called a time-out
early fourth quarter, and I said,
"Shaq, now's the time."
Just stay with your game.
Don't get yourself depressed about some bullshit.
- He knew who was on the floor.
He knew how they were gonna respond.
He knows what to say. He never panicked.
- Out to Shaw. They get it deep to Shaq.
And he connects...
- Come right back to Shaq. There he goes.
- And when you have Shaquille O'Neal
making plays like that, that inspires the rest of the guys.
- Shaw...
[crowd roars]
Even, with 3:37 left.
- Shaquille O'Neal did come alive,
and that turned it around for the Lakers.
- We made some exceptional plays,
but one of the ones that always stand out
was Kobe coming down the court,
throws the ball up about 11 feet high,
and Shaq goes up, puts it through.
When you give of yourself,
your bond becomes stronger
as a group.
[crowd roaring]
- The Lakers are going to the NBA Finals
for the first time since 1991.
- There's only one way to win a championship.
You take it. You take it.
We thought somebody for years was gonna hand us
a championship because we were so talented.
When you relinquish the concern or care
for how you are digested outside those lines,
how are you criticized or perceived or celebrated
when none of that matters, then you're on the right path.
- We was 13 down, and I told my guys,
"Look, do or die, time is now.
"We been in this position before.
"We ain't never lost three in a row.
Let's play. Let's go."
- With winning in the air, Angelenos are falling in love
all over again with their Lakers.
Showtime is back.
[indistinct chatter]
[drums playing]
- I think the city's been waiting for this moment,
just like I've been waiting for this moment.
Now we have a opportunity to do something
that hasn't been done for, I think, 10, 11 years.
So I'm sure the city is pumped up.
Now we get to the Finals.
So now I have to go into my pissed-off file.
What happened last time you got to the Finals?
Oh, you got swept.
You got embarrassed by Hakeem Olajuwon.
So now I always said to myself,
"If I ever get back to the Finals...
I'm dominating."
- Having been shut out,
the desire to get back there and be the dominant force
was, I think, inherent in who he was.
- Shaq needed the win.
I recall him talking about, if he doesn't win,
the word would be, you know, "Shaq was never good enough."
- This is the moment of truth.
This is what the great people do.
You have to turn it up.
[indistinct chatter]
♪ ♪
First game, I come in-- "Throw it to me."
When I have that "throw it to me" look, they know,
"Okay, we're just gonna give it to the Big Fella."
But I got to make my mark in this game.
♪ ♪
- O'Neal over Croshere for the rebound
and powers back up and scores.
And Smits out on him on a switch.
Here's Shaq for the jumper from the baseline
that beats the shot clock.
Here's Miller on the drive. Shaq with the block!
♪ ♪
There we go, Shaq, right there.
- There's your Shaw-Shaq Redemption.
- One hand going away from the basket,
7'1", 330 pounds...
- This has been a defining season for Shaquille O'Neal--
MVP of the league, the scoring champion.
- And he can't defend him. He fouls him there.
- O'Neal, double teamed. - Hack-a-Shaq game.
You have to make him shoot free throws.
- On the Hack-a-Shaq there, no easy baskets.
- He couldn't control it.
Now he does, and they foul him.
♪ ♪
Shaquille O'Neal to shoot two.
With the first one, he will tie,
and with the second one, he will break the record
for most free throw attempts in a single game
in the NBA Finals.
♪ ♪
- There had to be moments when he was on the free-throw line
where it just didn't feel good...
♪ ♪
Where there was an article that was written
whether we had lost a couple games,
and he felt like people could point to what he wasn't doing.
Being the center of the abuse, it all had to feel like,
in that moment at the free-throw line
by myself...
everybody can see that.
♪ ♪
[cheers and applause]
- You know, my teammates are looking for me.
You know, they tried the Hack-a-Shaq.
I missed a couple in the first half.
I think I was, you know, trying too hard,
but once I settled down and, you know, just took my time,
you know, most of them fell for me.
♪ ♪
- Here comes Rose. - Jalen all the way.
And you can count it!
♪ ♪
[buzzer blares] - And that's it.
♪ ♪
- Four seconds.
Reggie off the screen for three...
[whistle blows, buzzer blares]
The Lakers have a 3-1 lead.
- It's hard to stay in the moment
in this kind of situation-- you get giddy.
You know, you got a lot of energy.
You got a lot of thoughts, but stay really focused.
♪ ♪
- Thank you for bouncing back with this kind of effort.
This showed a tremendous amount of pride,
Bob, by this Indiana team.
They fought from start to finish.
It's a big win for them and their franchise.
- This is my shot. I got everything I want now.
There ain't no excuses.
Now that I'm here, what you gonna do, Big Dog?
♪ ♪
It's a must that I win on this note.
It took the great Michael Jordan seven years
to win one.
It took the great Hakeem ten years.
I hope it doesn't take me that long,
but I'm gonna just keep trying hard.
♪ ♪
I'm eight, nine years in.
Like, I'm starting to be
on the other side of the mountain.
♪ ♪
"You're not gonna make it."
♪ ♪
"You're not that good."
♪ ♪
"You're never gonna win a championship."
♪ ♪
"You, you're not ready."
♪ ♪
I want to be known as one of the greats.
♪ ♪
- The aura of Shaq is that he showed up
in the biggest moments of the game...
♪ ♪
And that's in the NBA Finals... and delivered.
♪ ♪
[crowd cheering, buzzer blares]
- And the Lakers are the 2000 NBA champions.
♪ ♪
- When you get to that final moment
and the games are done
and you're declared the champion,
that is no greater feeling.
I mean, just the pure joy and happiness--
you see it in their faces, but just being able to feel that?
That's something kind of special.
- To the unanimous MVP
of the 2000 Finals, Shaquille O'Neal.
all: [chanting] MVP! MVP! MVP!
- Shaq, you have won everything this past season,
but I think it all pales in comparison
of winning this championship.
- First of all, I want to thank Phil Jackson.
[cheers and applause]
And I want to thank you fans in the Staples Center.
Forget what everybody say.
This is the best arena right here!
The Staples Center, the loudest arena right here!
- We dreamed that dream together.
What he wanted for himself, I especially wanted for him.
♪ ♪
I always did something to encourage the dream.
I told him, "Never stop dreaming.
Just keep on putting in the work."
all: [chanting] MVP! MVP!
- I just kept instilling in him
that your dreams are going to come true.
Dreams come true.
♪ ♪
- I've held emotion for...
about 11 years now.
I always wanted to win, and it just came out.
It just came out.
♪ ♪
- That sort of got the monkey off of Shaq's back,
that he delivered to the fans.
Yeah, get a look at the dynasty.
This is the next one right here.
- One thing I've always been is a dreamer.
And all my dreams have come true
because I believed them.
After we win a championship,
it's 17,000 people in the arena,
2,000 people on the floor.
I put my hands up.
That just melted me. I was like, "Wow.
"I'm here.
I'm here."
♪ ♪
In my mind, I'm about to do the Phil Jackson thing--
like on the lake, the window right there.
I'm about to put it right there every time so I can see it.
I get back home.
My father says, "Give it to me.
You know how we roll, brother. Go get another one."
So now at my house, there's no trophy.
Watch ESPN--"Yeah, Shaq and them, they did it,
but can they get another one?"
I'm like, "Oh.
Oh, there you go."
[thunder rumbles]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
The rise!
[bright tone]