Shaquille O’Neal’s Place in History Fits Nicely Into Boston Celtics’ Legacy

Shaquille O’Neal adds a lot of size and experience to the Celtics’ depth chart.

Most notably, O’Neal carries a legacy that places him amongst the 10 greatest players in NBA history — making Boston, known for its own legacy of superstars, the perfect destination for the final stop of O’Neal’s Hall of Fame career.

Here are just some of the incredible stats he's accumulated since 1992.

27,619: Total amount of points that Shaq has scored in his career, ranking him fifth in NBA history. O’Neal will join Kevin Garnett (26th), Ray Allen (34th) and Paul Pierce (50th) in one of the most prolific scoring offenses of all time.

12,566: Number of rebounds that Shaq has in his career, ranking him 15th in NBA history. Wilt Chamberlain is first all time with 23,924 boards.

2,628: Number of career blocks for Shaq. He ranks seventh in NBA history and joins Garnett (21st) and Jermaine O’Neal (29th) as possibly the best trio of shot-blockers ever assembled.

41,116: Number of minutes that Shaq has played in his career, third among active players. He joins Garnett (second), Allen (fifth) and Pierce (12th) in the top 20. The Celtics needed to replace their historical minutes, because it’s becoming increasingly unlikely that Michael Finley (fourth) returns, and Rasheed Wallace (eighth) is definitely not going back to Boston.

$19,647,819: Difference in money between Shaq’s 2009-10 contract ($21 million) with the Cavaliers and his 2010-11 deal with the Celtics.