At least in my lifetime, there has never been a more dominant center in the NBA. Straight out of LSU, Shaq was a nightmare for opposing defenses and just appeared bigger, stronger, and hungrier than anyone else. Diving for loose balls, going coast-to-coast, bringing down backboards, and of course…. entertaining, were all a part of his monster personality and monster skill set. SLAMonline’s own Ryne Nelson hooked ya’ll up with this video from Shaq’s rookie season many moons ago. YOU CAN’T STOP THE REIGN.
-Schneezy
For more old school videos, check out SLAMtv in the Media section.
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In history.
Period.
I’m telling you something good, brethren.
Shaq is the most dominant of all times.
Stats do not tell the entire story in a many a case.
And if I was building a team, I would still take Kareem or Hakeem.
Guys in Wilt’s day…
Shaq would have destroyed them.
Cosign Wayno.
You really think Wilt would have done 35-15 today?
He is my dude, too.
Love the dance at the end
Shaq didn’t either, but…
@Mike C:
Great points at 11:45a.m.
But, even many of the centers today are at least bigger, stronger, and more athletic than the centers of Wilt’s day.
And, I do believe that Shaq could do 35-15 today if he was in his prime.
Arguable points, guys. Almost everybody.
One area where Shaq is pretty much unrivalled though: Personality
(I know I keep repeating this on here)
Kareem is the greatest center who has ever played the Game of Basketball in the NBA.
No one has come close to Chamberlain numbers.
If a player scores 20 points a game and grabs 10 rebounds, he’s viewed as great. Subtract that player from Chamberlain and the dude is still dropping 30-15.
I look at a players’ athleticism when gauging how well he’d do in today’s age. Chamberlain’s was off the chart. He could jump higher than Shaq, run faster than Shaq, and only really gave up 15-20 pounds. He had a reliable spin move, turnaround jumper, and was great at pump faking around the basket. I don’t see how he couldn’t succeed.
Not to say I’d choose him over Hakeem and Jabbar when choosing a team. Chamberlain reeaallly didn’t care too much about that winning thing.
Dwight Howard is decent. He will even be a Hall of Famer barring injuries, in my opinion.
But he isn’t completely dominant.
We have to remember that the centers of Wilt’s day have nothing on the centers of today, and even as far back as the 70′s.
Kareem and Hakeem got better as time progressed into their early to mid 30′s.
Wilt, didn’t sustain that Hall of Fame level of play, in my opinion, going into his latter years of his career, because new breeds of dominant centers were emerging.
He had issues getting older.
Ewing as we all know, has had multiple knee surgeries throughout his career.
And don’t forget he often dominated even with dunking because of the issues with rims breaking back in the day. Since I’ve only seen highlights of wilt, I can’t say whether he was better than Shaq, but just because he was more physically imposing than everybody in his era doesn’t mean he was a brute force player, like Shaq.
Shaq had amazing athletic ability and great footwork. But, the biggest part of his game was brute force and he took advantage of the fact that most players didn’t have the fundamentals or will to take a beating from him. The only player I can think of who was willing and able to slow Shaq in his prime was Tim Duncan, and Duncan did that by forcing Shaq to make tough shots over defense, and boxing him out on the offensive glass. It worked quite well.
Wilt: 13.2/18.6/4.5 on 72% shooting
Shaq: 17.8/8.4 /1.7 on 61% shooting
Hakeem: 19 /9.6 /1.6 on 51% shooting
Jabbar: 21.5/7.3 /2.6 on 58% shooting
Malone: 15.6/9.1 /1.1 on 47% shooting
Robinson:12.2/8.3 /1.2 on 51% shooting
Looks pretty comparable to me, if not better in many ways. Wilt was still an absolute MONSTER in his old age. He just was a rebounding/passing/defensive monster, cause he had Greer/West/Baylor who could score instead of him.
Also, DRob isn’t in the discussion because both Shaq and Hakeem ate his lunch. Thus, he doens’t get into the convo when we’re talking about the greatest.
Finally, Shaq was dominant and all, but for all the talent he had, and the talent he played with, he still has been swept from the playoffs like 4 or 6 times.
I’m not saying he had SUCH a huge drop off,
but it is considerable in comparison to the likes of Kareem, Shaq, and Hakeem.
He did struggle a bit, though.
True, he had other weapons then, but one could see him struggling.
Great work, man.
Competition is better today, as far as individuality.
Kareem, though, is still the Greatest Center Ever, without question. Prime Kareem would take Shaq to school.
If I had a team full of greats who needed a centerpiece, I’d pick Russell. Dude’s leadership, team-oriented offense, and defensive skillset was perfect. Plus he’d be a power forward in today’s game anyway.
He was able to accept that he had limits, and ultimately, protected his legacy in the process.
In my opinion.
It is also possible that players like Alcindor and Walton could be 4′s if they played today.
All-star game or not, that was massive, and Robinson was playing proper D too
Take a look!
Six MVPs. Insane stats. Look at his 1975 averages with awe: 28 points, 17 rebounds, 5 rebounds, a steal and a half and four(!!!) blocks! on 52% shooting! Honestly, just looking at that line could send chills down your spine.
Kareem doesn’t get credit for how much he owned his peers.
Webber (6’10) in 99
Mutombo (7’2) in 00 and 01
Wallace (6’9) from 02 and 04
Garnett (6’11) from 04 to 07 and
Howard (6’11) from 08 to 10.
So in Shaq era, the best rebounders were not bigger than the guys Wilt was playing against.
And a note on Bill Russell, probably the classiest guy in the league ever, just a great guy, great mentor, he was great choice for having the finals mvp named after him
He only led the league in scoring twice. The only dominant individual stats he has with fg% where he led the league 10 times. He was not killing the competition and that’s how you measure dominance.
is like comparing
Liv Tyler vs Scarlett Johansson (and i am more of a fan of Liv, go figure, but its only personal preference)
The Promise, you wouldn’t put Russell or Malone at fifth?
The Promise, you wouldn’t put Russell or Malone at fifth?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2Jztd_HsPY
only one other player in the annals of The League can boast that fact.
Shaq is… historically dominant.
The only reason why that is, is because the subject involves ancient players such as Wilt. No one wants to be the assh*le who talks presumptuously about things they haven’t seen with their own eyes.
But just wait till the subject returns to current topics, the Heat, Kobe, LA, etc. Don’t worry. your regularly scheduled broadcast will resume shortly.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&page=ShaqFTs-081218
“Wilt, didn’t sustain that Hall of Fame level of play, in my opinion, going into his latter years of his career, because new breeds of dominant centers were emerging.”
That’s totally uninformed. When Wilt was asked by his coach to shoot less and pass more, he did so. And averaged 24ppg and 8apg a game those two seasons. EIGHT ASSISTS PER GAME. AT CENTER.
By the time Wilt got to L.A., he was a shell of his former self.
Coach knew it, and Wilt knew it.
“By the time Wilt got to L.A., he was a shell of his former self.”
Wilt averaged 20.5 points, 21.1 rebounds, and 4.5 assists on 58% shooting (along, probably, with 3-5 blocks) and he was A SHELL OF HIS FORMER SELF?!?
Wow. How ungodly was Wilt in his prime?
We’ll take travel schedule. In Wilt’s day, there wasn’t 30 teams in The League.
Considerably less.
Rules?
They brought in the zone for Shaq.
Social factors kind of tie in with scheduling, for Shaq was doing all kinds of things outside of basketball.
Wilt… well, there was the women.
Agreed.
Shaq got every single call go his way. Kareem and Chamberlain would literally be punched and kicked when the ref wasn’t looking. C’mon, son, it goes both ways. It always does.
Personally, I think Shaq’s dominance is a bit overrated because he got every single call under the sun, and pretty much had a team full of jump shooters that made double teaming him impossible: he never needed to develop range.
Of course, Hakeem had the same type of team.
Arguable.
Wilt had better range than Shaq.
Shaq had no range.
To me, that fact furthermore illustrates Shaq’s dominance.
He didn’t need range.
He didn’t need too many cute moves.
Just flat out, pure, unadulterated… dominance.
great points everybody.
Consensus:
Shaq = most dominant center.
I had Wilt too until I read these comments.
Let me chill.lol!
No doubt.
Kareem was killing before he met either of them, hell he was the most dominant player in the country from the time he left high school.
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