BATON ROUGE – One of LSU’s greatest players and NBA icon Shaquille O’Neal was named Friday as a finalist for induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
The announcement came in Toronto during NBA All-Star Weekend activities.
O’Neal was joined as a finalist by longtime college and pro star Allen Iverson. Yao Ming was nominated by the Hall’s International Committee.
Several others were nominated finalists by the North American and/or Women’s Committees.
The entire class will be unveiled April 4 in Houston before the NCAA Championship game and enshrinement if chosen will be Sept. 9 in Springfield, Massachusetts.
O’Neal averaged 21.6 points and 13.5 rebounds with 412 blocks in his three seasons at LSU (1989-92). He was a two-time All-American (1991, 1992), the national player of the year (1991); he was chosen a member of LSU’s All-Century Team in 2009 and, his number was retired in 2000.
He remains fifth all-time in scoring at LSU with 1,941 points and second all-time at LSU (seventh SEC) in rebounds with 1,217.
In his NBA career, he was the NBA Rookie of the Year (1993), the MVP (2000), a three-time MVP of the NBA finals (2000, 2001, 2002) and a 13-time All-NBA selection. He was a 15-time selection for the NBA All-Star Game and won titles with the Los Angeles Lakes (2000, 2001, 2002) and Miami Heat (2008).
He leads all LSU players in NBA points scored (28,596), rebounds (13,099) and games played (1,207) in his pro career from 1993-2011.
The member of the LSU and Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame graduated from LSU in 2000 and now serves as the highly popular studio analyst on TNT’s coverage of the NBA.