Beating Michael Jordan in the playoffs during the 1990s? That was basketball’s version of climbing Everest - nearly impossible, and only one man can say he did it before Jordan reclaimed the throne.
That man? Shaquille O’Neal.
Shaq brought it up recently on expediTIously with Tip T.I. Harris, and you could hear the pride in his voice.
“I’m the last guy to beat MJ,” he said. “I win thousands of dollars in all barber shops… Listen, Mike is the GOAT, but I’m the last one to beat him.
And then they always say, ‘Well, that’s when he wore 45.’ I don’t give a f*** what he wore.
He was on the court.”
Let’s rewind to 1995. Jordan had just made his return to the NBA after a brief stint chasing curveballs in baseball.
He stepped back onto the hardwood in March, late in the regular season, and laced up for just 17 games before the playoffs began. And while he wasn’t quite the Jordan that had just rattled off three straight titles before retiring in ’93, he was still putting up numbers most players could only dream of: 26.9 points, 6.9 rebounds, 5.3 assists, nearly 2 steals per game.
Not bad for someone shaking off the rust.
In the first round of the playoffs, it looked like the old Jordan was back. He dropped 48 in Game 1 against the Hornets and led the Bulls to a quick four-game series win. But the Eastern Conference Semifinals would tell a different story.
Enter Shaq and the Orlando Magic.
Game 1 set the tone. The Bulls lost 94-91, and Jordan, wearing No. 45 - his baseball number - scored just 19 points.
That was enough for him to ditch 45 and bring back the iconic 23 for Game 2. And with it came a scoring explosion: 38 points in Game 2, 40 in Game 3.
But it wasn’t enough. The Magic just kept coming.
The series seesawed, tied at 2-2 after four games, but Orlando closed it out with back-to-back wins to take the series in six.
Jordan still put up a monster stat line: 31.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 2.5 steals, and 1.8 blocks per game. But he wasn’t quite the same killer we’d seen in the ’93 Finals, when he averaged 41.0 per game against the Suns. The sharpness wasn’t all the way there yet - and the Magic made him pay.
Shaq, meanwhile, was a force. He averaged 24.3 points, 13.2 boards, 4 assists, and 2 blocks per game.
That wasn’t just a young star rising - that was a 7’1", 300-pound wrecking ball announcing his arrival on the biggest stage. And for all the talk about Jordan being “not quite himself,” Shaq’s not having it.
As he said, “He was on the court.” That’s all that mattered.
But the Magic’s high didn’t last long. In the Finals, they ran into a buzzsaw in the form of the Houston Rockets.
Hakeem Olajuwon and company swept Orlando in four games, denying Shaq and Penny Hardaway their first ring. It was a tough pill to swallow, but the Magic bounced back strong the next season.
In 1995-96, Orlando went 60-22 and stormed through the playoffs, dropping just one game on their way to the Eastern Conference Finals. And who was waiting for them?
Michael Jordan - fully back, fully locked in, and fully wearing No. 23.
This wasn’t the same Bulls team from the year before. They had reloaded, retooled, and rewritten the NBA record books with a 72-10 regular season.
And when it came time for revenge, they didn’t just beat the Magic - they swept them. Four games, no mercy.
Jordan and the Bulls were back on top, and they weren’t stopping there.
They went on to win the title over the Seattle SuperSonics in six games, then kept the dynasty rolling with championships in ’97 and ’98. Jordan retired again after that second three-peat, and while he’d return in 2001 with the Wizards, he’d never make another playoff appearance. His final retirement came in 2003.
So yes, Shaquille O’Neal does have a rare badge of honor - the last man to beat Michael Jordan in the playoffs. And that’s not nothing. In fact, it’s something he’ll remind you of with a smile (and maybe a bet in a barber shop).
But Shaq also knows where Jordan stands in the game’s hierarchy. During the podcast, he listed MJ among the five players who inspired him the most, alongside legends like Julius Erving, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Stephen Curry. Of those five, only Curry didn’t make Shaq’s personal top 10 all-time list - a nod to how elite that group really is.
At the end of the day, Shaq got his win over the GOAT. But Jordan got the last laugh - and the rings to prove it.