Shaquille O’Neal recently put a post on Instagram, asking fans to settle the debate as to who is the greatest Laker. The options given by the Big Fella were Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and himself. On his Instagram, Shaq even accompanied the post with a graphical representation of all the player’s accolades.
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This recent post is in line with a series of posts Shaq puts on his Instagram regularly. Shaq often tries to engage fans in this type of Barbershop talk. These antics are not only a thing on the internet but also happen when The Big Diesel is on the air.
Shaq asks fans to choose the Laker’s Goat
Shaquille O’Neal loves himself in some GOAT talk. This time it wasn’t about the greatest player, but the greatest Laker. Dr. O’Neal recently made a post on Instagram, asking fans who the best Laker of all time is. Shaq Fu even provided graphics to represent each player’s accomplishments.
For Kobe, the argument is that he won five championships with the Lakers, was finals MVP two times, was regular season MVP once, had 15 All-NBA team selections, and 12 All-Defensive team selections. As for Magic, it would be five championships, three regular-season MVPs, three final MVPs, and 10 All-NBA teams.
For the big men of the purple and gold, Shaq had himself and Kareem. Kareem won five championships, three regular-season MVPs, finals MVP, 10 All-NBA teams, and 7 All-defensive teams.
Last but not the least was Shaq. Shaquille O’Neal won three championships, one regular season MVP, three finals MVPs, made 8 All-NBA teams and 3 All-defensive teams. No doubt, the impact of all these players is profound. Shaq captioned the post,
“who is the G.o.a.T for the lakers?
any answer is the core t answer”
Each player had a serious impact on the trajectory of the league itself. Kareem brought about the revolution of the hook shot and having a skilled big as your main option. Magic revolutionized the point, making it possible to have a bigger and larger player, play the point.
Shaquille, when he came into the league, changed the rules of the game and how teams constructed their rosters, just to deal with him. Kobe showed the world that the Jordan formula for success was not a fluke, and building a team around a singular player works well too.
But out of the entire lot, the best arguments lie for Kobe and Magic, as the two had the fortune to play as Lakers for the entirety of their lives. They even praised each other for their skills.
Kobe and Magic call each other the greatest Lakers
Now that we have possibly narrowed down the fight to just two candidates, let’s see what the two players think of each other position as the best Laker. Magic has openly admitted multiple times that Kobe is the greatest Laker of all time. During his 2020 interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Magic explains why he thinks so.
Giving his reasoning Magic said, “Kobe never made an excuse. Whether he was tired, hurt, he played through everything. The man gave us everything that he had. That was Kobe Bryant”.
Though that may not be the most objective argument for Kobe’s GOAT status, we can still appreciate Magic’s opinion on the matter. As for now, it looks like the argument cannot be settled just yet.
