The NBA Finals are in the books for this season. The Nuggets beat the Miami Heat in convincing fashion, and got Denver the city’s first-ever NBA championship. Nikola Jokic – the man they call The Joker – was a big, BIG part of the winning formula.
To say The Joker was dominant would be an understatement. Not gonna say he carried the team – he certainly had plenty of help on the floor – but there’s no doubt he was the standout. For his hard-won efforts, Jokic was named the Finals MVP.
Here’s where it gets interesting! The last center to win Finals MVP honors? Why, that would be none other than our man Shaquille O’Neal, with the Lakers in 2002. Before that? O’Neal with the Lakers in 2001. Before that? Shaq with the Lakers in 2000. Starting to see the story here?
So of course it took less than an internet minute for social media pundits to start buzzing with comparisons between the two big men. Similar dominant performances? You bet. Different eras of the game? Absolutely. A bit tip ‘o the hat to our friends at the Los Angeles Times newspaper for the breakdown story.
Side-by-side numbers: O’Neal was (and still is) an imposing 7-foot-1 and 325 pounds playing weight. (Stats according to Basketball Reference) During playing days, Shaq went by the nickname Superman (among others). Depending on which end of the floor he was playing, O’Neal was both an immovable object and an unstoppable force. Of course for Superman, there’s gotta be Kryptonite. And for Shaq, that was the free-throw line.
As for Jokic, he’s a little smaller, although that would be hard to see with just a quick eyeball check. At 6-feet-11 and a playing weight of 284 pounds, he’s not the outsized bruiser that O’Neal was. Still, game analysts will tell you, he’s probably more dynamic.
As we say in the playoff rounds and the Finals, the Joker can – and did – shoot from pretty much anywhere. And yes, he had a much better record from the free-throw line. If there was any kind of knock on Joker, it was a perceived lack of athleticism. (True? Not true? You tell us…)
For those that want the numbers, peruse the data below. Similar, impressive numbers, with a couple of glaring exceptions. Check those three-point stats!
At the LA Times, they had several in-house hoops writers add their thoughts. Lakers beat writer Dan Woike wrote: “Apples and oranges for me. Shaq dominated in a way physically that’s been unmatched since. Jokic’s all-around effectiveness in offense is unlike anything I’ve seen. I think I’d lean Shaq because brute force usually has won out over history, but Jokic, to me, was more fun to watch.”
Also at the Time, Clippers beat writer Andrew Greif: “I think what’s most interesting about Nikola Jokic is that he’s leading those who watch, and work within, the NBA to reevaluate what ‘dominant’ looks like. There’s the Shaq version that can physically push Chris Dudley under the basket and dunk over him with sheer strength. There’s also Jokic, a version of the big man archetype, who even those with years of NBA experience will tell you they have never seen before, because he combines savvy with the shot-making of someone playing a backyard game of H-O-R-S-E.”
More from Greif: “He just became the first NBA player to lead all postseason players in three categories — total points, rebounds and assists. Total his averages and they come out to 52.9 combined points, assists and rebounds a night, and ESPN’s research department found that’s the second-highest total of any player in history who has played a minimum of 15 games in a single postseason. I don’t think you can say one or the other is more dominant. It’s like they’re playing two completely different games.”
Is there a clear winner here? No, of course not! Two different styles of play for two very different eras of the NBA. Still, crazy-fun to watch, for both big men! Enjoy your summer.
