Shaquille O'Neal: the most dominant

Shaquille O'Neal entered the NBA in 1992 as a center unlike anything the league had faced: enormous, powerful and, for a man his size, startlingly quick and coordinated. He overpowered defenders with sheer strength and finished with a delicacy that belied his frame, turning routine possessions into dunks that shook the rim and, occasionally, the backboard itself. From his first season he was a phenomenon, a player around whom entire defensive schemes had to be redesigned, usually without success.

O'Neal's peak came with the Los Angeles Lakers, where alongside a young Kobe Bryant he formed one of the great duos in the sport's history. Together they won three consecutive championships from 2000 to 2002, with O'Neal named Finals MVP in each of those years — an utterly dominant run in which he was, night after night, simply unstoppable on the biggest stage. He had already been named the league's Most Valuable Player, cementing his place at the very top of the game.

So overpowering was O'Neal that the sport adapted around him. Opponents resorted to deliberately fouling him away from the ball, gambling on his free-throw shooting rather than trying to guard him — a tactic so associated with him it earned its own nickname. Rules governing defence in the paint were shaped in part by the problem he posed. Few players have ever forced the game to reorganise itself so completely around the challenge of a single, immovable presence in the middle.

O'Neal won a fourth championship later in his career with a different team, confirming that his dominance was not tied to any single roster. Off the court his humour and outsized personality made him one of the most recognisable figures in all of sport, a genuine cultural icon. But the heart of his legacy is simple and physical: for a decade he was the most dominant player in basketball, a center so powerful that stopping him was never really an option, only a hope.