He doesn’t forget: Shaquille O’Neal still hates this man over something that happened 25 years ago!
Shaquille O’Neal (Photo by Francois Nel/Getty Images)
Shaquille O’Neal hasn’t let go of the vote that denied him a unanimous MVP
During the 1999–2000 season, Shaquille O’Neal steamrolled the competition. He averaged 29.7 points per game on 57.4% shooting from the field, along with 13.6 rebounds and 3.0 blocks. He was dominant in every sense of the word, and it seemed inevitable that the Los Angeles Lakers’ big man would sweep all MVP votes.
But out of the 121 sportswriters and broadcasters who cast their ballots, one didn’t vote for Shaq.
That lone dissenter was CNN journalist Fred Hickman, who opted instead to cast his vote for the electrifying Philadelphia 76ers shooting guard Allen Iverson.
O’Neal still won the award by a landslide, but it wasn’t unanimous—something that still eats at him. In fact, Shaq has gone on record multiple times saying that the moment “destroyed history.”
“Yeah, I hate him,” O’Neal admitted in an interview reported by Yahoo Sports. “I never need to speak to him. There’s nothing to apologize for because he ruined history by being a coward,” he declared, still visibly hurt by what he views as a betrayal that robbed him of a unique place in the record books.
The vote that changed Shaquille O’Neal’s legacy
There’s no debate—Shaquille O’Neal was the rightful MVP of the 1999–2000 season. His dominance that year is often cited as one of the greatest individual performances in NBA history. He joined an elite club that includes legends like Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. But unlike them, Shaq was just one vote shy of becoming the first player to win the award unanimously.
“Was anyone else doing what I was doing? I told the world I would do it,” O’Neal stated. “And they saw it in my eyes… he ruined history. And then, a few years later, he turns around and gives the unanimous vote to Steph Curry. I love Steph. Steph’s my favorite. He knows that. But come on…”
It’s worth noting: Fred Hickman cast his vote for Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry in 2016, making Curry the first—and so far only—player in NBA history to receive the MVP unanimously.
O’Neal isn’t the only superstar whose legacy was altered by a single rogue vote. In 2013, LeBron James was on the brink of unanimous MVP status, but Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe voted for Carmelo Anthony instead—blocking LeBron’s path to statistical immortality.
To this day, Stephen Curry remains the only player to win the MVP award without a single dissenting vote. His 2016 campaign with the Warriors—when he shattered the three-point record and led his team to an unprecedented 73–9 regular season—was simply too spectacular for any voter to question.
