‘I Shot Kazaam!’: Shaquille O’Neal Continues to Avoid the 24-Year-Old Sydney Olympics Mystery

“Thank you for choosing me the first two times. But this time I’ll probably refuse.” Shaquille O’Neal said before the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The USA squad was loaded with talent, boasting Tim Duncan, Alonzo Mourning and Vin Baker in its ranks. So, Shaq felt, or at least claimed, that they had enough resources to win the gold medal.

The team, to no one’s surprise, won gold. The USA is third in a row. But even after the victory, the mystery remained: why did O’Neal miss a golden opportunity to win his second Olympic gold? The question hangs in the air, the great US basketball mystery. After all, O’Neal was at the absolute peak of his career, winning his first regular season MVP, Finals MVP and NBA championship with the Lakers.

It didn’t make much sense to miss the Olympics. And here in the last issue Great Podcast with ShaqAlonso Mourning, O’Neal’s former Miami teammate and member of Team USA in 2000, tried to dig into the case again. But Shaq, in typical Shaq fashion, deflected the question and gave a witty answer. He showed

“I shot Kazaam, but don’t worry about it… Don’t tell anyone.”

His response left Mourning and podcast co-host Adam Lefkoe perplexed. They laughed at his answer and laughed at him before moving away from the topic. Their reaction is fair considering this is one of Shaq’s signature jokes.

Kazama comedy film in which O’Neill played the role of a genie was released in 1996, 4 years before the Sydney Olympics. Considering that, fortunately, there is no sequel, his answer of 4 years is far from the truth.

Although Shaq never directly answered this question, he did leave a subtle hint in his memoirs.

Shaq was upset by the treatment he received in the 1996 Olympic finals.

At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, O’Neal, coming off the bench, was unstoppable on the court. In Team USA’s first seven games, he averaged 10.3 points, six rebounds and one assist in approximately 17 minutes of playing time.

He planned to cap off his stellar campaign with an impressive performance in the gold medal match against Yugoslavia. However, he never got the chance. In his book Shak uncuthe wrote,

“Before the game, (Team USA head coach) Lenny Wilkens came to me and said, ‘Shaq, you’re going to go to many more Olympics, but this will be David Robinson’s last Olympics, so I’m going to give him most of the Olympics.’ minutes.”

He also wrote about his reaction to being snubbed by Jayson Tatum:

“I barely played in the gold medal game. I played about five minutes in total. Wilkens put me in for the last fifteen seconds. I think I had 2 points. This was David Robinson’s third Olympics and my first. So can you give me some time? I was very disappointed. After we won, I took my medal, jumped in the car and drove home. That was the beginning and end of my Olympic experience.”

O’Neal played just five minutes, the fewest of any player on the team, while David Robinson played 26 minutes. He was so upset by the ordeal that he left the arena after the awards ceremony and went home. Along the way, he threw his gold medal out the window and never found it.

The Hall of Famer never let go of that disappointment, and that final against Yugoslavia was the last time he wore a Team USA jersey.