It’s officially “off-season” for the NBA, and that can only mean one thing. Time for some hoops hot-stove conversation from the season just ended, but also looking back on NBA history.
In this case, it’s Shaq-story, one of our favorite topics. Why didn’t we have that class in high school, anyway? Thanks to our friends at LakersDaily.com for info on this story.
It’s been said many times, by many analysts and commentators, about the game we love. Our man Shaq is one of the most dominant big men ever to play the game. Nothing new there. Even in his retirement years, on Inside the NBA and elsewhere, O’Neal has never been reluctant to talk about his position in the all-time power rankings of the Association’s best players.
He’s even used his position on TV and social media to call out other bigs he felt weren’t holding up the position very well… and he’s done the opposite, too. Heaping praise on standout bigs. Just this past season, he “officially” inducted Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokić into his “big man association.” (BTW, we’re pretty sure Shaq made that up on the spot. Still, pretty darned cool.)
Last year, O’Neal was all over three-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert, when he felt Gobert was not giving one hundred percent. Now another award-winning name has come up for comparison with the Lakers Superman.
Joel Embiid had a great season, even if his 76ers underperformed in the playoff tournament. For his work, he was named this season’s Most Valuable Player. For the season, Embiid averaged 33.1 points, 10.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.7 blocks per game on 54.8 percent shooting from the field and 33.0 percent shooting from three-point-land.
So somewhere in the social media-sphere, someone had the idea to suggest Embiid would dominate Shaq, all things being equal (both men playing at the top of their games.) Check out the IG post. Shaq’s only response? “Hold on.” Honestly, we would have expected a little more fire from the big guy. Maybe that’ll come on his next podcast.
As for Shaq’s playing days, he won MVP honors only once during his 19-year career, but there was so much more, including being named to the All-Star team 15 times. He was a four-time NBA champion, a 14-time All-NBA selection and three-time Finals MVP.
So… who ya got? As a six-time All-Star and five-time All-NBA selection, Embiid is undoubtedly one of the league’s best players today, but many people would likely choose O’Neal over him.
Of course Embiid likely still has plenty of years left in him before calling it quits on his career, but it doesn’t seem like he will catch up to many of O’Neal’s accomplishments at this rate. Shaq’s collection of four Championship rings will be tough for anyone to equal or beat in the current NBA environment.
Of course for us, we’re solidly on the Shaq-train. Would you have thought anything else? C’mon, man…
