SHAQ HONORED AS NBA's MOST VALUABLE PLAYER

Jet, May 29, 2000

Los Angeles Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal displays his Maurice Podoloff Trophy after he recently was named the NBA's Most Valuable Player of the 1999-2000 season in Los Angeles. O'Neal, who led the league in scoring (29.7 points per game) and field goal percentage (.574), was one vote shy of winning his first MVP award by a unanimous decision.

The 7-foot-1, 330-pound center garnered 120 of 121 votes cast by a panel of sports writers and broadcasters. His percentage of first-place votes, 99.2 percent, was the highest ever. The one remaining vote went to Philadelphia's Allen Iverson. "From this day on I would like to be known as The Big Aristotle," O'Neal, 28, said, "because it was Aristotle who said, 'Excellence is not a singular act but a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.'"