The NBA is undoubtedly the most talented it’s ever been. Nearly every team has a star player worth building around, and even bench players are more than simply one-dimensional athletes these days. Shaquille O’Neal knows what it takes to achieve greatness, but when the Hall of Famer was asked which ringless young stars are capable of achieving that level, he couldn’t stick with just one name.
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Shaq rattled off three of the league’s brightest young stars alongside a perennial MVP candidate and multiple-time winner. He acknowledged that Nikola Jokić has already reached that level, but he’d still like to see him with two or three more titles. Meanwhile, he had high praise for Anthony Edwards, Victor Wembanyama, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, all of whom have yet to win their first championship.
With so many options for fandom, Shaq believes the NBA is in the middle of another renaissance, similar to what the league experienced when Michael Jordan burst onto the scene. When he was growing up, Shaq had his pick from an array of legends to be a fan of. He believes the same is true for young fans today.
“So, as long as you got options where you can go to,” Shaq said. “You know, when I was coming up, some people like Magic, some people like Bird, there’s a young kid named Jordan. Some people like Detroit. If you got four options in a league, yeah, the league’s doing great.”
The four-time champion also took time to praise other stars who haven’t been discussed as much because of their teams’ recent playoff failures. “Giannis is still in that. Donovan Mitchell played great this year. So, there’s a lot of guys and then there’s talk about who’s going to be the next face of the league,” Shaq continued.
With so much talent in the league, Shaq believes that distinction should be a coveted status among young players. “If I was one of these young players, I would definitely want that because I remember when Jordan left and it was talking about who’s the next face of the league. I was like ‘I’ll show you who the new face of the league is.'”
When Michael Jordan retired for the second time following the 1997-98 season, Shaq was entering the prime of his career at 26 years old. Entering his third season with the Los Angeles Lakers at the time, Shaq had already accumulated numerous All-NBA and All-Star nods. He had also already knocked Jordan’s Bulls out of the postseason and nearly led the Orlando Magic to a championship if it wasn’t for a few Nick Anderson missed free throws.
Already the league’s most dominant force, Shaq had a great case to take over the mantle. In the years following Jordan’s retirement, it was Shaq’s league, as the 19-year veteran led LA to three championships and captured his lone MVP award in the four seasons after MJ called it quits.
Shaq had the potential to be recognized as basketball’s greatest center, but his mid-career drop-off hindered his chances at that distinction. For about half a decade, however, it was hard to argue to anyone that the face of the NBA was not Shaquille O’Neal.
