Shaquille O’Neal couldn’t say much as his argument about Kobe Bryant being better than LeBron James was expertly dealt with.
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The list of the greatest ever players in NBA history has often been debated. The general consensus remains that LeBron James and Michael Jordan are battling it out for the honors of first place.
With the rest of the influential luminaries competing for third up until tenth. A vast majority of supporters believe that Shaquille O’Neal, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Tim Duncan, Bill Russell, and Larry Bird are a dead-on lock for the spots ranging between those numbers.
The remainder three names have been disputed on numerous occasions. One such name who has been the subject of such a debate is Kobe Bryant. Bryant, due to his influence and impact is unparalleled.
To settle these narratives, former teammate and one-half of the legendary duo of ‘Shaq and Kobe’, Shaquille O’Neal has come to the aid of his former teammate.
Shaq probably still believes Kobe was better than fellow four-time NBA champion, LeBron James. Unfortunately for Diesel, his counterpart provided a well-constructed argument as to why Bean does not warrant a ranking ahead of the King.
Shaquille O’Neal was silenced as he attempted to argue that Kobe Bryant was better than LeBron James
O’Neal was brought on as a guest on the latest episode of ‘Fluent and Chill’ by Players Choice. The panel engaged in an enthralling discussion that spanned over two hours. The subject matter that captivated sports supporters was the top 10 lists curated by the members.
O’Neal and one of the members, an NBA Tik Tok content creator with the handle ‘chltwn32’, engaged in a tussle involving the order of their rankings of the top 10 list. The conversation got rather beguiling when the latter mentioned to O’Neal, that he did not have Bryant in his top 10 players of all time.
When the social media user listed his top 10 list of the greatest NBA players, he left out the Black Mamba. On hearing the list, Shaq queried the TikTok sensation as to why he opted to place LeBron James over Bryant.
To which Chltwn32 stated:
“I don’t think Bryant did nothing better than LeBron except shoot free throws. Nothing.”
Superman disagreed and made the argument that the general consensus surrounding Michael Jordan was he embodied ‘perfection’. If Bryant was hailed as a mirror image of Jordan, he should be somewhere up there ahead of James, in these discussions.
Chltwns gave a compelling rebuttal. He said:
“But he wasn’t that though. He was a carbon copy of J, but he wasn’t as good as J….It makes you closer to perfection, only except this dude (LeBron James) with all that stuff that he had to go through…There’s a generation of kids that don’t know the NBA Finals without LeBron James…”
The Black Mamba has captured five NBA championships, amongst several other laurels. Bean is considered and cherished as an all-time great by some sections of the sports world.
Others disagree with his ranking itself, proclaiming that, at the peak of his prowess, he wouldn’t even be Top 10.
Bean and Diesel: Distinction
O’Neal and Bryant were tyrants of the NBA from 1999 to 2002. With the duo at the helm, the Los Angeles Lakers clinched their one and only three-peat in franchise history.
It was also the last three-peat to have been recorded in basketball history. In spite of the illustrious accolades attained over this four-year period, personal differences got the better of them.
Their combative nature eventually tipped the boiling point and the highly triumphant collaboration was set to be disbanded. O’Neal went on to procure himself another championship with the Miami Heat in 2006.
However, he was the second option at the Heat, with Dwayne Wade being handed the keys to the kingdom. While the rest of the sporting world was of the assumption that Bryant was incapable of leading a team to an NBA title.
Kobe Bryant persevered instead as the principal option. The Black Mamba defied all expectations and won the Lakers their 16th and 17th championship respectively in 2009 and 2010.
