Charles Barkley told Shaquille O’Neal to his face that he wasn’t a greater Lakers center than Wilt Chamberlain on NBAonTNT.
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When it comes to pure dominance on a basketball court, barely anyone comes close to what Shaquille O’Neal put on display during his prime years with the Los Angeles Lakers. Sure, his early stint with the Orlando magic took him to the NBA Finals once but it’s clear that him in the purple and gold was the best version of him.
Someone who does come close to rivaling Shaquille O’Neal in terms of dominance, and potentially even surpassing him, is Wilt Chamberlain. Granted, there is a severe generational gap between the two NBA legends and they both faced drastically different competition.
However, there is no denying that despite the fact that he was seen as a selfish players who looked to pile on individual stats at all times, he was a force that could not be stopped down low.
Shaquille O’Neal was also someone who only had guys like Tim Duncan or Hakeem Olajuwon step up to try to slow him down to the best of their abilities.
Shaquille O’Neal claims he’s greater than Wilt Chamberlain as Charles Barkley strongly disagrees.
The question asked was ‘Who are the greatest Lakers centers of all time?’ In that scenario, Shaquille O’Neal most definitely clears Wilt Chamberlain. ‘The Big Aristotle’ won three consecutive championships and Finals MVPs as a member of the purple and gold while also winning a regular season MVP that most certainly should’ve been a unanimous selection.
Charles Barkley decided to play the heel on this however as he emphatically denied that Shaq was better than Wilt. It should be noted that everybody agreed on the fact that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the greatest Laker center of all time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fho5JzSQW2M
Overall, there is a debate on who is greater but when it comes to who contributed more to the Lakers, Wilt’s singular championship doesn’t hold up against O’Neal’s 3 consecutive ones.
