Shaquille O’Neal Digs Up ‘New Way’ To Push Michael Jordan To 2nd ‘On A List’ With a Kobe Bryant-Shaq Stat

Akash Murty | 13/05/2023
Shaquille O’Neal Digs Up ‘New Way’ To Push Michael Jordan To 2nd ‘On A List’ With a Kobe Bryant-Shaq Stat

As a basketball fan, you must know Shaquille O’Neal would bet on the prime version of himself against anybody in the game of basketball. The Big Aristotle might consider Michael Jordan the greatest to ever do it, but every now and then he brings up a situation that would prove some team of his better than MJ’s. Something he did yet again.

Just a couple of days back, he shared a post on his Instagram story where he pointed toward Mike being the GOAT over LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and the many other greats of the game.

It was not even 48 hours from when he posted that, The Diesel shares another post on his Instagram where he chose himself over MJ in a very peculiar way.

Shaquille O’Neal picks himself and Kobe Bryant over Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen

In a recent Instagram post, O’Neal brought up a statistic of him and Kobe from the 2002 NBA Finals in a side-by-side comparison with MJ and Pippen’s 1993 Finals. In it, The Lakers’ duo leads in points, rebounds, and blocks whereas the Bulls’ duo only edges them on assists and steals.

The 15x All-Star also asked his followers who they would pick.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by DR. SHAQUILLE O’NEAL Ed.D. (@shaq)

The fans were obviously a bit divided in their opinion.

In Shaq’s comparison of the legendary duos, those marginal differences in points and rebounds despite the Bulls pair being shorter in length (combined) just prove the prowess of Jordan and Pippen if anything.

The difference in assists (4.9) per game is what proves to be the difference that made ‘Mike’ and ‘Pip’ better than them and probably any other duo in basketball history when the lights shone the brightest.

A career achievements comparison of the arguable top two duos of all time

Jordan and Pippen who played together for around 9-something years together (considering Jordan’s retirement), won 6 championships, 15 All-Star selections, 16 All-Defensive teams, 9 scoring titles, and 4 steals titles playing together.

Whereas, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant played 8 years with each other, won 3 championships, and had 12 All-Star selections, 8 All-Defensive teams, and a single scoring title between the two in that period.

So, considering both, the team and individual accolades, the Bulls duo overshadows the Lakers duo, be it largely because of Michael Jeffrey Jordan.

 

Post Edited By: Tonoy Sengupta
Kobe Bryant Michael Jordan Scottie Pippen Shaquille O'Neal

About the author

Akash Murty

An Electrical and Electronics Engineer by degree, Akash Murty is an NBA Editor at The SportsRush. Previously a Software Engineer, Murty couldn’t keep himself away from sports, and his knack for writing and putting his opinion forward brought him to the TSR. A big Soccer enthusiast, his interest in basketball developed late, as he got access to a hoop for the first time at 17. Following this, he started watching basketball at the 2012 Olympics, which transitioned to NBA, and he became a fan of the game as he watched LeBron James dominate the league. Him being an avid learner of the game and ritually following the league for around a decade, he now writes articles ranging from throwbacks, and live game reports, to gossip. LA Lakers are his favourite basketball team, while Chelsea has his heart in football. He also likes travelling, reading fiction, and sometimes cooking.

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