Shaquille O’Neal’s Boston stint has turned into one of the NBA’s favorite punchlines, but the joke lands a little differently when you look at what actually happened.
By the time O’Neal got to the Celtics in 2010, he was already deep into the back half of a Hall of Fame career. He was 38, carrying more than 1,000 games and 41,000 minutes on his body, and the miles had started to show.
Still, the version of Shaq that played in Boston was not just some empty shell. He started all but one game he appeared in, helped a Celtics team that had just been to the Finals finish the regular season with 56 wins, and was on the floor for a 28-9 record in the games he played.
The numbers were modest by Shaq standards - 9.2 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 37 games - but he was also efficient, shooting a career-high 66.7 percent from the field. And there were still nights when the old force showed up, including a 25-point, 11-rebound game against the New Jersey Nets.
Even so, the Boston chapter has taken on a life of its own. “Celtics Shaq” has become shorthand for a player who’s clearly past his peak, a meme that turns O’Neal’s final season into a symbol of being washed.
The image stuck because it came at the end. O’Neal had already been declining in Cleveland, and while he had been an All-Star and All-NBA Third Team selection just two years earlier, the Celtics were where the finish line arrived. Knee and Achilles injuries limited him, and those problems ultimately helped bring his career to a close.
O’Neal is hardly the only one who knows the reference. In 2024, Kirk Cousins told him he didn’t want his own career to end the same way, specifically pointing to the Suns and Celtics stops.
“I want this to be my final stop,” Cousins said. “I don't wanna do the deal - no offense, but I don't wanna go play for the Suns and the Celtics at the end. I wanna finish with the Heat, if you will, and be done.”
“Same thing I said,” O’Neal responded.
That Boston version of Shaq may be the one that gets memed, but it’s still only one slice of a bigger career. His team-by-team numbers show just how far above the rest of the league he was for so long: 27.2 points, 12.5 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game with Orlando; 27.0 points, 11.8 rebounds and 2.5 blocks with the Lakers; 19.6 points, 9.1 rebounds and 1.9 blocks with Miami. Phoenix, Cleveland and Boston were the later stops, and Boston has become the one people use as shorthand for the end.
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