As Stephen Curry recently won his 4th title and a maiden Finals MVP, Shannon Sharpe removes Shaquille O’Neal from his top 10 list to make space for the GSW star.
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The Golden State Warriors defeated the Boston Celtics 4-2 in the NBA Finals to win their 4th title in 8 years. And finally, Stephen Curry has gotten his hands on the long-awaited Finals MVP that had been missing from his cabinet for quite some time now.
With Chef Curry adding several prestigious accolades to his resume this season, many analysts and basketball enthusiasts have added him to their top 10 lists. Analyst Shannon Sharpe is just one of many to do so.
In the latest episode of “UNDISPUTED”, Shannon said:
Skip, I said this was the only thing that was missing from his resume. He got his first Finals MVP, he’s a 2-time regular season MVP, the only unanimous winner of that award, he’s a 4-time champ, he’s a 2-time scoring champ, and how he changed the game of basketball, Skip, I don’t know if we can properly quantify what he’s done for and to the game of basketball.
Skip, the guy that I bumped out of the top 10 was Shaq. It was between he (Shaq) and Kobe. My list, I got – Bron, Jordan, Kareem, Magic, Wilt, Bird, Tim Duncan – 15-time All-Defense, 15-time All-NBA, 15-time All-Star, 3 times he was a Finals MVP, 2 times he was a league MVP – Bill Russell, Kobe – Kobe got everything out of his career… and then I got Steph.
Shannon Sharpe explains why he removes Shaquille O’Neal from his top 10 to add Stephen Curry
Shockingly, Sharpe got rid of Shaquille O’Neal from his top 10 to add The Baby-Faced Assassin. The 53-year-old analyst gave a reason for his rather bizarre take:
Skip, the thing is that I’m most disappointed in Shaq and I know Shaq has 4 titles, but I don’t believe Shaq got everything out of his career. Skip, I don’t believe we’ll ever see a guy as physically gifted as a big man as Shaquille O’Neal. 7-foot-1, 325-335, could run, athletic, agile, nimble, but Skip, he didn’t work.
He should’ve been the all-time scoring leader. He should’ve had 6-7 championships, if he’d had the work ethic. And because of that, Skip, after the age of 30 he never scored more than 23 points in a game. Steph Curry just won finals MVP at the age of 32.
So for me, Skip, look, when you talk about a top 10, it’s really close. It’s really really close. If we go top 13, Skip, there are guys that are right there like 11, 12, 13 could easily be in. If you look at the top 3, top 6 players, all of them get atleast 3 MVPs in the regular season. For me, I’m not putting anyone on my Mt. Rushmore with only 1 regular season MVP. No one. I’m not gonna do that.
Agreed, Curry has to be given his flowers after an incredible achievement, however, Shaq was the most dominant player ever. Not having Shaq on a top 10 list seems rather wild, whatever might be the reason.
Also Read: Bill Simmons had to eat his words after Yao Ming dominated Lakers star more than anyone else
