The era of Shaquille O’Neal is long over. A whole new generation of fans have now found their way to the league, pushing the memory of Shaq’s excellence to the fringes. In fact, even some of the old heads who watched O’Neal play live and put the fear of god in opponents’ hearts have seemingly forgotten his conquests.
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Fans and media today make the mistake of not counting Shaquille O’Neal among the greatest of all time despite his dominance. Unfortunately, it is the same treatment Kobe Bryant has received in recent years. People look at Stephen Curry and his 4 rings and proclaim him among the greats but Shaquille O’Neal had as impressive a career as Steph if not more.
And Shaquille is getting tired of this treatment. The Lakers legend, while on the Fluent & Chill podcast called out the hosts for not acknowledging him as the most dominant player of all time.
Shaquille O’Neal believes he and Stephen Curry are in a category of their own
The conversation for the most dominant player of all time started after Shaq called out a host for his past statements. O’Neal, making his first appearance on a podcast since his hip surgery, remained adamant on the show that he was the most dominant. And despite all of Wilt Chimberlain’s shade on a young Shaq, Diesel named Mr. 100 points as the only one who could be compared to his dominance in the game.
While explaining his statement, Shaq provided the Stephen Curry analogy. He stated that Curry is the greatest shooter of all time and only Ray Allen, Reggie Miller, and Damian Lillard are even part of the category. Shaquille O’Neal believes that when it comes to being the most dominant player of all time, only he and Wilt Chamberlain have a legitimate claim over it.
Shaq: “I never wanted to be the best player in the league, I wanted to be the most dominant. You talk about all these categories and let’s just quite frankly say y’all should listen to it more. I am a little bit jealous that I am not in the greatest player of all time conversation. But that’s fine, I got my own category. And there’s only a few players that got their own categories. For example, Steph Curry, best shooter in the world. Who’s in that category? Ray Allen, maybe Reggie Miller, Dame Lillard, you gotta put him in that category. Most dominant in my opinion is only two, myself and Wilt.”
Shaq was unreal at his peak
There has hardly been any player who created the kind of fear Shaq did in his Orlando and Lakers days. He was an unstoppable force of nature. When Shaq ran down the lane to dunk, opponents likely wished it was a steam train instead.
In fact, Shaquille O’Neal, on the same podcast, agreed he created fear, not in just the players but also the entire league. He reminded the podcast hosts how the NBA changed so many rules to cope with Shaq’s dominance.
