Considering my sports teams haven’t given me to much fodder to blog about recently, I'm switching my attention to Shaquille O’Neal’s retirement. When I was a kid, I worshipped at the church of Shaq. As a Knicks fan who rooted for a team almost completely devoid of personality and charisma, Shaq represented a sports figure that kids gravitated to.
He had action figures (I had them), a video game (I rented it, it was awful), and movies (Steel over Kazaam). And just like all of his products, I feel that as incredibly entertaining as they were at the time, they’re a bit overrated. Not as much as his merchandise, but one particular idea has stuck in my craw when it comes to historical comparisons for the Big Aristotle.
Just about every respected basketball writer I’ve seen has given the nod to O’Neal over Hakeem Olajuwon in the all time center rankings. This is important to me because of the other four big men considered for the top five centers (Russell, Chamberlain, Abdul Jabbar, and Mikan/Malone), those two were the only two I saw play. Needless to say, as much of an affable guy as Shaq is, and as hilarious as his press conference is right now, there was one more name he should have said after Bill Russell, Kareem, and Wilt Chamberlain when mentioning the names above him on the list.
The biggest difficulty about comparing the two is that they narrowly missed playing each other in their respective primes. The 1995 Finals saw Hakeem at the peak of his Dream Shake powers, while Shaq was still just flicking on the signal to turn the corner. Both of these players are all time greats, first ballot hall of famers, and dominators of an era of basketball when talented big men were a dime a dozen. They each had their superhuman strengths and wealths of talent
What Shaq represented on the surface was brute strength. The ability to overpower people like nothing seen in sports outside of Andre the Giant. I don’t think there’s one center at any point in their career that could have been put in front of the Diesel and stood up to the physical pounding they’d be subjected to for 48 minutes without yielding at least a double-double.
But there was definitely more to Shaq’s game. When he started seeing the far reaches of where his game could extend to, he started sneaking in touches of finesse. What was once a charging elephant now had a pretty baseline spin move, which was borderline un-guardable due to the fear of getting trampled.
After years of getting double-teamed, Shaq also developed into a very good passer. Not on level of Walton, but certainly in the elite among centers. In Game 1 of the 1995 NBA finals, he flirted with a triple-double but just missed closing the deal with 9 assists.
Hakeem represented a completely different type of player. There was definitely a powerful aspect to him on his dunks, but if you were looking at the top half of him you were missing the show. His footwork at the center position hasn’t been equaled, and I don’t believe it ever will be. The array of post moves in his arsenal was dizzying, and they took their toll on some of the best centers of all time. He outplayed Ewing in the 94 finals. He outplayed Shaq in the 95 finals. And David Robinson still breaks into cold sweats any time he’s presented with an award.
Hakeem was also quite possibly the best two way center to ever play the game. Because for all of the work he did on the offensive end, his defensive statistics jump out even more. He’s still the NBA’s all time leader in blocks. He’s 12th in total rebounds, and an unheard of 8th in steals. He had 2162 steals in his career, to put it in perspective, the next highest center on that list is Robinson at 48th with 1388.
I believe that Olajuwon separates himself from the Man who has many names when you look at their weaknesses.
The glaring one for Shaq was his free throw shooting. Reportedly he refused to heed the ever “personable” Rick Barry’s words to shoot his FT’s underhanded, and instead he was a 60% free throw shooter once in his career, and a 40% free throw shooter 6 times. The hack a Shaq strategy was embarrassing to watch, especially when Poppovich so brutally exploited it when Shaq was playing for the Suns in the playoffs. Hakeem never had that trouble, shooting 71 % for his career, and routinely in the mid 70’s during his prime.
However, I knock Shaq more for his malaise on the other end of the floor. Shaq fit the phrase that I hate most in the NBA which is a “disinterested” defender. When he wanted to be, he could be a shot blocking menace and a handle for 95% of centers in the league to get past.
But he didn’t always want to be, in fact, he regularly wasn’t. If you watch the Shaq and Hakeem highlights of Game 1 of the 1995 finals, Hakeem guards Shaq on nearly every play. On the other hand, there are plenty of times where Shaq is on the floor as a spectator as Hakeem decimates Horace Grant, especially late in the game.
Shaq made three All-Defense teams in his career, all three of which were second teams. He finished second to Zo, Dikembe, and most unforgivably, Ben Wallace. Not to take anything away from Big Ben, but Shaq was light years ahead of him in athleticism and talent, and yet Ben got the first team nod because he simply hustled more.
Shaq’s clashes with teammates at almost every stop in his career are obviously well documented. First Penny, then Kobe, D-Wade, and finally Steve Nash after reportedly stealing Nash’s TV show idea. The most memorable of all of these was Kobe, mainly because of what they gave up. Kobe may have started it by mentioning O’Neal’s groupie history, but Shaq was 31 to Kobe’s 25, and should have handled the feud in a manner befitting of the situation.
When you have the opportunity to turn your trophy room into a jewelry store, you patch up your differences, and continue the domination. It was only after he forced a trade from Miami, that people figured out that Shaq may very well have been an egotistical handle in the locker room.
Shaq was blessed to have played with two top 20 players nearing or at their prime, and another brief shooting star in Penny Hardaway. Hakeem had little to no help early in his career after Ralph Sampson was traded, before receiving Clyde Drexler and then Charles Barkley in the last few years of their career. Had the situations been flipped, I think Hakeem would have at minimum equaled O’Neal’s championship output, and Shaq would have had two rings at most, including the one in his ear.
To wrap it up, Shaq at his best was the most dominant force I’ve seen play basketball. A bulldozer on the court, and a marketing dream off of it. He’ll go down as one of the top 15 players of all time, and one of the top 5 sports personalities. But only in his dreams was he a better player than the real Nigerian Nightmare.
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