A recently surfaced Instagram reel sparked debates around Shaquille O’Neal and Wilt Chamberlain for the title of the greatest NBA center of all time. Its aftereffects became evident on the Los Angeles Clippers roster as Kawhi Leonard engaged in this argument with his teammates. Following the debate, the 2x champion openly expressed his stance on the matter in a post-match interview.
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His teammate Ivica Zubac and coach Jeremy Castleberry showed him a short clip containing one-on-one plays between Chamberlain and Bill Russell. Throughout that video, Russell did not contest Chamberlain’s shots on the court as the Philadelphia-born scored at will. After witnessing those moments, Leonard publicly opened up about his point of view as he shed light on his choice.
“They showed me a video of Bill Russell not contesting on Wilt Chamberlin and then I’m just telling them, ‘Why you all looking at Instagram? You all gotta watch the whole game’. And then it went from there to saying, ‘Shaq was better’. I just told them I would take both of them,” he mentioned.
Kawhi Zu and Jeremy Castleberry were debating about Wilt and Bill Russell and Shaq … Kawhi told them watch the games instead of Instagram highlights pic.twitter.com/ynhpQDeNwq
— Law Murray (@LawMurrayTheNU) January 13, 2024
It showcased the in-game understanding of the NBA star as he refused to form an argument without witnessing the entire game. The 32-year-old thus acknowledged the room for several other contributing factors behind the decision of Russell to leave Chamberlain uncontested. At the same time, the small forward paid respect to both the greats as he put ‘Goliath’ and ‘Diesel’ on the same pedestal.
Wilt used to abuse with turnaround finger roll (rare footage of Wilt Chamberlain vs Bill Russell) pic.twitter.com/2G63bJB2uS
— Marcus W (M.DOT) (@MWatkins924) January 7, 2024
Despite the logical explanations of the 5x All-Star, the common mass continued to articulate their opinions based on snippets of the game. It possibly led to a biased decision as several undermined the Big Dipper’s achievements as an individual. All of them pointed toward the lack of effort from Russell, the alleged greatest defender of all time, to highlight the easiness of scoring during that era. Thankfully, Leonard did not align his beliefs with them as he maintained his uniqueness even in this instance.
What did Shaquille O’Neal think of Wilt Chamberlain?
In a past interview, Shaq once mentioned, “I’m mad because I wanted to pass him up in points. When I hear a conversation about myself I only wanna hear one name”. “If I would have passed him up, I would have arrogantly said, ‘Shaquille O’Neal is the most dominant player ever. Don’t ever ask me the question again’. yeah, I got more rings than him but he got more 50-point games, he got more rebounds and he has more points,” he further added.
Following that, the 4x champion recalled working with Chamberlain on a commercial. “When I first came into the league, I did a Reebook commercial. I brought him, Bill Russell, Bill Walton, and Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar],” the center mentioned. “It was me paying homage some respect,” he highlighted.
Thus, just like Leonard, Shaq has always kept Chamberlain on the same pedestal as himself. It captured the mutual respect between all the greats of the game and displayed how it never faded away with time. It certainly put into focus the essence of the league.
