The celebration of Shaquille O'Neal‘s career has been in full force all week ahead of O'Neal's Hall of Fame induction on Friday. Stories have been told my former teammates, competitors, coaches, and front office executives, detailing Shaq's dominance and his unforgettable personality.

New Lakers head coach Luke Walton only spent one season playing alongside O'Neal, his last in Los Angeles before moving on to the Miami Heat. Shaquille was in the prime of his career, and a rookie Walton had more than just a front row look.

Luke had the unfortunate responsibility of trying to guard O'Neal on a number of occasions in practice, and despite behind 6'8″ himself, Walton didn't stand much of a chance.

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Here's his description on the impossible task, courtesy of Bill Oram of the OC Register:

Walton found himself guarding O’Neal during scrimmages. With Walton at 6-foot-8, 230 pounds – “Which is a pretty good-sized person,” Walton said – O’Neal enjoyed a considerable advantage. O’Neal would instruct the other Lakers not to give Walton any help in the post.

“It was literally like being a child,” Walton said. “There was nothing I could do but try to foul him, and even trying to foul him most of the time he would still score. And then he’d eventually tell me and other players that if we fouled him, not only could we not get help, but if we fouled him he was going to punch us.”

Considering that O'Neal completely dominate men of much taller and heftier statures than Walton's throughout his career, this isn't too surprising. Almost everybody would feel like a child trying to defend the Big Fella in his heyday; Luke shouldn't feel bad about this one bit.