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A Grant Hill-Shaquille O'neal partnership in the 90s would be a full-blown coup. But in the twilight of their respective careers, they had the chance to become teammates when they played together for the Phoenix Suns. Hill had countless memories of playing for the Suns, and one of them was when O'Neal lost control and choked out teammate Gordan Giricek.
Hill sat down with CBS Sports' Reiter's Block as he recalled that unforgettable incident.
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“Shaquille O'Neal choked out Gordan Giricek before a game,” Hill told host Bill Reiter. “He put him in a sleeper hold and the guy was knocked out, passed out on the locker room floor before the game. Definitely one of Shaq's memorable — or not-so-memorable — moments from the year and a half that I played with him with the Phoenix Suns.”
“You know, Giricek was a good player from Croatia, a good shooter, but he never passed the ball inside,” Hill said. “He would always kind of look Shaq off and shoot it. And they kind of would go back and forth and exchange words and Giricek would kind of talk trash to Shaq. And so one day Shaq was like, ‘You know what, I'mma let this guy know who I am.'
“It was right before a big game in Phoenix against Dallas. We have our team meeting. The meeting ends, I go and use the restroom. I come out and Giricek's laid out on the floor. And I'm like, ‘Come on Shaq! We're trying to win!' But it was typical Shaq. Thankfully, Giricek, nothing serious happened. Thankfully he's living to be able to talk about it. But Shaq was always entertaining and always knocking people out, I suppose.”
O'Neal's 7-foot-1, 300-pound frame would be enough to slap someone to sleep, much more to choke out a smaller man than him. A dominant presence down low, it would be really frustrating for him not to be passed the rock, especially considering the fact that it happened numerous times already.
Hill would go on to play five productive seasons for the Suns. After that, he played one more year with the L.A. Clippers before finally deciding to hang up the sneakers.
