The NBA is in its 76th season. During that time, we’ve seen quite a few extraordinary players take the floor and dazzle us with their talents. There have been brilliant big men like Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and Shaquille O’Neal. Guards like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, and Stephen Curry. And, forwards like LeBron James, Tim Duncan, Kevin Durant, etc.
Advertisement
As the game evolves and as time passes, there are newer players who keep getting added to the list, and people start forgetting about the players from the past. For the longest time, people have been debating about their Top-5/Top-10 players from all throughout the history of the NBA.
It’s not an easy list to compile, especially when you see the kind of talent the league has seen. However, Shaquille O’Neal made another attempt to compile his Top-5 recently.
Shaquille O’Neal reveals his Top-5 All-Time
O’Neal is one of the most dominant big men to play the sport of basketball and was an absolute beast. He’s considered as one of the Top-10 players all-time. Recently, he was on NBA Rewind with Ahmad Rashad.
There, Big Diesel was asked to name his All-Time Top-5. O’Neal thought for a second and named, “Julius Erving, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.”
When asked if he’d put himself as the 6th man, Shaq thought for a second and talked about how he’s Top-20, nay, Top-10 for sure, but he wouldn’t name himself as the 6th man.
View this post on Instagram
Continuing he then named his Top-5 position wise,
“Point Guard – Magic Johnson, Two-Guard – Michael Jordan, Three-Guard – Kobe Bryant, Point Forward – LeBron, and at the Center – Kareem/Bill Russell!”
That’s rather very humble of Big Diesel not to name himself in the Top-5, knowing he could very well be there.
Shaq’s opinion on the GOAT debate
Usually, Shaquille O’Neal doesn’t like to get into the GOAT debate. According to him, he’s played with all of the guys named in the same, so he doesn’t want to put himself in that spot. However, he’s several named Michael Jordan as the GOAT.
However, once LeBron James broke the scoring record, he changed his stance, and declared LeBron as the GOAT.