I'm hoping he lives up to all the hype...he's on my fantasy team .

Posted by knicks1248:

Yeah is the biggest guy in the league, and the most dominate.

But when you look at the likes of what Ewing, Robbinson, Hakim, ZO, Parish, Mchale, and a lot of other great Centers had to deal with. The one thing they all have in common, they all played against equal talant.

Now in the shaq ERA he has NOT ONE player at his postion who's even half as good as him, which contributes to his dominance.
Every single postion in the league ( other then the Center positon) can be be a very comptetive match up. But what match up does Shaq have, he's dealing with ( what would be consider a few years ago) second string players, as starters. Yoa ming is basically his only challange as far as one-on-one match ups, and he out played shaq 3 out of 4 games last season.

Shag came into this league when most of the best centers, were either in there prime, or on the decline, and he really didn't domiante as much, if at all.

Now he's been traded to the East and everybobdy is penciling in the heat as a sure thing, despite being ridiculosly thin at every postion.

To me this as got to be a factor when you speak about how great shaq really is.

Jordan is a great great player, but just imagine if, Shandon anderson was his best compition.

sooooo....the fact that Shaq is better than everyone makes him not as good as players who aren't as good because those players have to play against comparable players and Shaq doesn't? Huh?

Look, Shaq is the most dominant big man ever. Why do you think KG and Duncan run from the center and pretend to be power forwards? All sorts of people who have seen Shaq and Wilt play say Shaq is bigger, quicker and better. Give Shaq some credit. He doesn't have to play again anyone as good as him, because he's the best big. He does have to put up with lesser players hacking the crap out of him all night.

Look, Shaq is the most dominant big man ever

OMG..........i cant believe i'm reading this.

when shaq can average 50 and 25 for a season, i will call him the most dominant big man ever.

please.............have a read

http://www.nba.com/history/players/chamberlain_stats.html

5 NBA Finals thats not overatted

it's never fair to compare players of yesterday to players of today & project how they would have played in each respective era...Wilt dominated his era alot more definitively than Shaq has dominated his...period...that means you can't say Shaq has been the most dominant bigman ever...he hasn't been.

Posted by crzymdups:


Look, Shaq is the most dominant big man ever. Why do you think KG and Duncan run from the center and pretend to be power forwards? All sorts of people who have seen Shaq and Wilt play say Shaq is bigger, quicker and better. Give Shaq some credit. He doesn't have to play again anyone as good as him, because he's the best big. He does have to put up with lesser players hacking the crap out of him all night.

I can weigh in here. I saw Wilt lots of times. IMO Shaq is bigger, but not quicker or better. I rate the top 3 centers to have ever played the game in this order: #1: Bill Russell; #2: Wilt Chamberlain; #3: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Shaq is a great great center,. I have him in the 2nd tier of great centers behind the Big 3, in the company of Nate Thurmond, Moses Malone, Wes Unseld, Dave Cowens, Hakeem, Ewing, Robinson, Mikan, Sikma and a few others.

Now I admit to this: I think everybody gets swayed by who their heros were in their youth - it's hard to be objective about the impact that people make on you when you're young. I grew up outside Boston, and in the 60's I used to go to Boston Garden regularly . On weedkends they had NBA doubleheaders there. For dirt cheap too. I used to see Wilt, Russell, Baylor, Chamberlain, Havlicek, West, Robertson, Barry, Sam Jones, Billy Cunningham, etc. ALl the "old-time greats." And I totally revered them. As you guys all know, for those of us who got the basketball jones young, it cut deep into our souls and never went away. And you gotta understand at that time the NBA was considered a minor level sports in America, WAY below baseball, pro and college football, college basketball, even hockey! They wouldn't even show the NBA finals live! Anyway, I'm going into this to admit that I'm prejudiced becaused of what struck me in my youth. But I'd be interested in hearing from a few other of the older cats to see if they feel the same. As great as Shaq is, he's not as great as the 3 I mentioned.

Shaq gets almost disrespected because of his size (you often hear "oh, he's just bigger than anybody else, that's why...".

Well, for one, that's like saying "Carl Lewis, oh, he was just faster than everybody else, that's why he won all those gold medals".

Also, outside of Hakeem, Shaq has the best footwork of any Center I've ever seen. He is as quick off the floor as anybody, often dunking before the (inevitable) triple team can react.

I think he would have owned Wilt because Wilt was as weak as Patrick Ewing when it came to pressure or response to being challenged. He cowered in '69 when the Captain came out of the tunnel, he backed down from 6'10" 230 lb Bill Russell consistently.

As far as Russell was concerned, can you imagine him giving 100 lbs to Shaq. I can't. He'd need held just like every team in the league needs to collapse their D on Shaq. Russell was a great winner. Russell today would have a fraction of the success he had then. He had zero offensive game. His skills compare to a slightly thicker Marcus Camby.

KG and Duncun are not Centers, they don't even play like centers, the games are way to fineses to be lagiitmate Centers. Ewing and Hakim Never played the 4 yet there games had just as much finese ( maybe not as much as KG) as any PF.

Most PFs are a lot quicker then Centers, and most centers are a lot stronger the PFs, so when your thinking KG and duncun are pretending to be PFs remember that. Thats not saying they won't be able to play the Center position for stretches at a time, but lets be realistic. They can do that only because of the quality of centers in the league.

If this was the early 90s or prior, duncun and KG would hardly ever play the center.

Shaq is very fortunate to play in such an era were his closes competitor ( outside of ming and brad miller) is averaging 11pts and 8rbs, while he averages 25 and 12.

Just think, when kareem got traded to the west, nobody said the west was in trouble, and the lakers would simple dominate. Yet kareem was probably the most skillfull center to ever play the game, and mastered a shot that only one person blocked in his entie career.

actually, i thought for the first three years it was back and forth with patrick and shaq. shaq destroyed ewing in the paint but ewing was smart enough to draw shaq out of the paint with his jumpshots. with the number game, they were about even for awhile. usually it was'nt shaq who was a pain in our ass. it was penny. i agree that shaq's footwork is unbelievable and he is really quick. but he can be complacent and not give his all. work ethic is questionable and it seems like he is just taking advantage of the weak centers in the league. he is a physical specimen. remember that he was stronger than hakeem but hakeem always outmanuevered or outsmart him. i think the center in the past would have done the same think, especially russell. he had an unbelievable basketball i.q. and would have found ways to deal with shaq. dominate ever? probably not. but if he continues to post good numbers for three years you may have to make an argument for it.