Is Shaquille O’neal the only one to have broken the backboard glass in the NBA? Did he even really do this?
For a while everyone and their brother tried to break the glass. The NBA changed the rules (it’s now a technical foul and a fine) and adopted the “pressure release rim” to help prevent it’s occurence.
I think (but am not positive) that Daryl Dawkins- Chocolate Thunder- did it as well. Darvin Hamm, currently in the NBA, did it in the NCAA finals.
Darryl Dawkins is probably the player best known for backboard breaking.
In case you were wondering the first person to break one (at least in the NBA) was Chuck Connors (yes, The Rifleman) of the Boston Celtics in 1946 (I believe that was the year). It was a game in Boston, but not at the Garden. Glass backboards were kind of a novelty at that time. After he broke it, they had to go get a replacement from the Garden. Roy Rogers was having a wild west show of some type at the Garden and they hired some of his workers to move the replacement for them.
I believe Wilt was the first to do it. I can’t remember his name, but there was a forward (he’d be a power forward in today’s lingo) whose career spanned the late-60’s early-70’s period, who broke 4 or 5 boards. It requires a lot of torque, so you’ve got to pull down hard and quick on the rim.
Darryl Dawkins, while playing for Philadelphia in the early 80’s told a reporter that breaking a board was his goal (no pun intended), and promptly broke 3-4 within a month (two on consecutive nights). That’s when the rules were changed and the pressure-release rim came along.
As with palming and travelling, the rules against post-dunk pull-ups on the rim are routinely ignored, so the occasional board goes when the breakaway mechanism fails to function properly.
It’s a technical foul to break a backboard in warmups, but not during the game, unless it is ruled that the player deliberately brought down the backboard.
The manufacturers of the present rims and backboards claim that most of the incidents of breakage happen when the entire goal is not perfectly plumb with the floor.
Shaq did one better: He once pulled a basket down to two feet high. Not exactly. He made a dunk and somehow triggered the mechanical arm used to adjust the height of the basket, causing the arm to fold itself. The basket came down as a result.
Capacitator, I saw that dunk by Shaq. It was utterly ridiculous. You could actually see the entire basket shift!!! Everyone else on the floor was astonished and walked around laughing with amazement while the crew fixed it.
Might as well post this link based on the topic…
This describes the first broken backboard in NBA history
Darryl Dawkins named his most famous backboard shattering dunk the “Chocolate Thunder Flying, Robinzine Cryin’, Wam Bam I am Jam”
On a personal note, I may be the only doper that can say I have broken wood, metal, and glass backboards. Let the fame roll in.
Wow- you’re one up on me, Mully. I’ve broken wood and metal and, on the latter, have the fake front tooth to prove it (when the backboard came down I landed face first on the asphalt).
quote:
“the rules against post-dunk pull-ups on the rim are routinely ignored”
Actually, not ignored. The refs and teams recognize that people below the net can be hurt by having a player the size of Shaq fall on them. If there’s nobody else in the key, the refs will call it.
does anyone have video clips of some of Shaq’s dunks?
I understand that – but I wasn’t referring to a guy hanging there too avoid landing on someone – I’m talking about guys actually pulling themselves up, or swinging their body up underneath the board, for emphasis. Potential collisions/injury is the rationale for not calling it, but the real reason is that the crowd loves it. Palming is the same thing: today’s NBA is full of “great” cross-over dribblers who couldn’t have played in the 60’s cuz they can’t even yo-yo out at the point without palming…
I’ve never broken a board, never dunked or come within a foot of dunking; my only claim to sports fame is that I never missed a free throw during competition.
Grendel69, are you giving me the Chris Jericho treatment? I flattered.
In general, although a venerable crowd pleaser and certain highlight material, the NBA and almost all basketball leagues frown on breaking backboards. It delays the game, and could be dangerous to those who were underneath at the time, with the shattered glass and all.
If you know this, why did you start the thread by asking if it had avctually ever happened? Your question is duplicated later by sublime 1300. We smells a troll, doesn’t we, Precious. Nasssssty trolls, we pulls them under the water and watches them squirm, Precious.