Shaquille O’Neal recently gained a lot of notoriety when he told Nikola Jokic how Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was a more deserving candidate for this year’s MVP award. Some accused Shaq of being jealous of Jokic. On the other hand, others assume that by winning the honor for the third time in four years, The Joker has made a strong case for being a better center than Shaquille O’Neal ever was. Amidst all the noise, The Big Aristotle shared a reel on his Instagram comparing the skillsets these two players possess in a rather unique way: using a viral ‘water pour’ Tik-Tok template.
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The clip in question had various aspects of their games being compared by pouring water into glasses to indicate how much talent each player possessed in that segment of the sport.
The comparison started with Shaquille O’Neal taking the lead in terms of scoring against Nikola Jokic. However, when it came to how deep their scoring bags were, Jokic got the nod instead.
The fan went on to give Jokic the advantage in basketball IQ, passing, and free throw shooting. But Shaquille O’Neal was given the advantage in terms of athleticism and dominance, as well as taking things personally.
One of the more hilarious bits where both players got very little water sprinkled, was their ability to stay on a healthy diet. As one might expect, this is an allusion to both players not quite falling into the lean or muscular category, instead having slightly sloppier-looking builds.
Shaq posted the video on his IG with the caption, “This is awesome and hillarious my four favorite players are @stephencurry30 @theanthonyedwards_ @giannis_an34 and the joker couldn’t find his @.”
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This caption from Shaq comes at a time when the Los Angeles Lakers legend has been accused of being jealous of the Denver Nuggets star center due to his winning two more MVP awards than the former NBA man did. And of course, it didn’t help that George Karl went out of his way to find out who he believed was the undisputed better player.
Jokic > Shaq
— George Karl (@CoachKarl22) May 15, 2024
Karl’s tweet garnered a lot of attention with fans giving mixed reviews of whether they agreed with the former coach’s take on the two players. While Nikola Jokic may have been making strides in the league, it may seem as if many fans and even analysts are forgetting how dominant a prime Shaquille O’Neal really was.
Right now, it is a bit too early to say who the better player was. However, with time, the Denver Nuggets superstar likely supersedes his predecessor.
