Miami Heat will hang the jersey uniform of Shaquille O'Neal from the rafter on a ceremony to take place on December 22. The Heat announced to honor the No. 32 retirement banner in a special halftime ceremony at American Airlines Arena during Miami's face-off with Los Angeles Lakers.

O'Neal will become the third player that Heat will honor with the ceremony, joining elite players Alonzo Mourning;s No. 33 and Tim Hardaway's No.10. He was initially traded by the Lakers to the Heat in 2004, resulting in the first NBA championship of the latter in 2006 which O'Neal helped to capture.

"Shaquille O'Neal is one of the most truly elite players in the history of the game and one of the greatest players to ever wear a Heat uniform," said Heat President Pat Riley in February, as quoted from an NBA blog article.

As per CBS Sports, Riley would not have a championship in Miami without O'Neal who garnered an average 19 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks for Miami during his four seasons in the team. The Hall of Famer was also the first in Heat history to shoot at least 60 percent from the field in consecutive seasons.

"He took us to another level as a basketball franchise while leading us to our first NBA championship. Retiring his number in the rafters, along with Heat greats Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway, is something we are very proud of," Riley further stated.

The basketball association further reported that O'Neal remains to be the Miami Heat's all-time leader in terms of field goal percentage (.596). The three-time NBA Finals MVP's 28, 596 points are the seventh most in the American basketball league's history. Likewise, he scored his 25,000th 19 seasons career point on February 2007 wearing a Heat uniform. O'Neal became the 14th player in NBA history to achieve this milestone.

Stay tuned for more updates!

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