Kristaps Porzingis

Watch Shaq shatter Kristaps Porzingis' dunking dream with a finger wag

Published Feb. 11, 2016 4:20 p.m. ET

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Andrew Lynch

While we might be overrating Kristaps Porzingis just a little bit in his rookie season with the New York Knicks, there's no denying the degree to which he's captured the imagination of basketball fans around the world. His affinity for dunking all over people is a big part of that, of course. 

But there's a question we can't stop thinking about: Could Porzingis serve up a dunk so vicious that even Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal would fall victim to the slam?

According to the legendary retired big man, the answer is a no — probably. And he wasn't shy about responding as such right to Porzingis' face at a recent sports memorabilia signing, complete with a Dikembe Mutombo-esque finger wag:

Of course O'Neal is going to have that kind of confidence. That's not surprising, although this is still a really fun video that we've watched a dozen times already. 

But did you catch that line from O'Neal? He says that the only person who's ever dunked on him is Michael Jordan. And, yes, there's this super-cut of Jordan having a field day against O'Neal during the early parts of the latter's career.

Has O'Neal forgotten his previous tale, though? In a 2011 episode of NBA TV's "Open Court," O'Neal admitted to one of his most embarrassing moments, when Derrick Coleman dunked on O'Neal "chest-to-chest." Other than that, though, O'Neal claimed that he'd only been "dunked by," not "dunked on."

Granted, O'Neal was speaking extemporaneously in the company of Porzingis, so we don't expect him to be absolutely accurate in all of his recollections. But it seems like an odd chance to O'Neal's story.

Regardless of that, we have one more question: Whom do we contact in order to get this Porzingis-O'Neal one-on-one game set up immediately? We'll even get to work on building a time machine to make sure the prime version of Shaq can take the court.

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Kristaps Porzingis

New York Knicks

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