During a soliloquy to his fans, Stephen Jackson listed five essential traits players require to be considered a “hooper”. He also differentiated the basketball players who are scorers from those who are hoopers. Shaquille O’Neal was among many who agreed with this take.
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An Instagram user posted a clip in which Jackson is heard listing the essentials in a player that make him a “hooper”. According to the 2003 NBA champ, a player must compete, play defense, score, contain their man, and win. If one is capable of doing all five of these tasks, they are eligible to be a “hooper”.
“Hoopers compete, they play defense, they score, and they go down and stop they man, and they win,” Jackson said.
In the same video, Stack also revealed the difference between a “hooper” and a “scorer”, claiming that he didn’t respect the latter as they didn’t play hard on defense nor did they make their teammates better.
“There’s a lot of players that came to the NBA that can score points that didn’t have long careers. It’s just the truth. But everybody is not a hooper. A lot of your favorite scorers very scared, they were soft, they didn’t compete on defense, they ain’t trynna stop nobody, and they didn’t make nobody better, and they didn’t win sh*t,” Jackson concluded.
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The clip received almost 50k views within days of being posted. Shaq shared it on his Instagram Stories, which also helped with the traction.
Shaq on his IG story pic.twitter.com/r7v7Ebrwwz
— tragicpatek (@tragicpatek) September 9, 2024
However, Stack’s opinion is valid. While elite scorers are always worshipped by fans, most players who remain in the NBA for longer periods are hoopers who contribute to winning. A good example is the Milwaukee Bucks trading Jrue Holiday to get Damian Lillard and absolutely shattering their defensive structure.
Therefore, both Shaq and Jackson want young players to concentrate on hooping, rather than just trying to be elite scorers like a few NBA superstars.
