It can be, and has been, debated whether Shaq is the greatest center ever. There are arguments either way. You can argue who is better...Hakeem or Shaq. But I never thought I would see someone seriously say this... "People think it's all power with Shaq, but they're wrong," says 86-year-old Pete Newell, the big-man guru who coached against Wilt and who schooled Shaq at his offseason camp in the early '90s. "Here's what I've seen [O'Neal] do in one game: Bank off the glass. Little lob hook in the paint. Step-back move on the baseline. Quick spin move when he comes out on the other side to shoot. And a neat step-through move when he was doubled or tripled. You go over the history of centers and can you remember anyone, except maybe Hakeem Olajuwon, showing all that? And Hakeem didn't have the power game. I don't like to rate players according to who's best, but none of the great centers had Shaq's moves and counters..." maybe Hakeem Olajuwon? Did he say maybe?? I can't believe they even printed his last comment. I guess Shaq has more post-up moves than Hakeem. I guess the one-handed, overhand jump hook Shaq uses as a jumper is a better move than the Dream Shake. Time for a cold one... http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/jack_mccallum/news/2002/06/12/insider/
Newell is on crack. Hakeem has better post moves than Shaq. That one isn't hard. Shaq has not shooting range; it's like 8 feet. Wilt and Hakeem both had a 15-foot range. Shaq is not stronger than Wilt. In his last couple seasons, Wilt was over 300 pounds, and was just as strong. He actually picked up Lanier (300 pounds) with one arm. Nothing on this earth can possibly convince me that Shaq is better than Chamberlain, or that Shaq has better post moves than Hakeem.
Did Wilt used to shoot NBA 3's even before they were brought in just to prove to others his range? Blocks and other stats weren't even collected. It's too bad Wilt didn't come around the day of television. Then again he'd probably contract syphillis midway his career and start having bouts of insanity... It's too bad human comparison and memory does so much to cloud up bias. Picture the prettiest model with 3 other models and you'd think that that model was great. But 5 minutes later bring in one of the other models and put her in the company of 3 ugly women and you might think she's a goddess...
That's the price of playing too long. What people remember you were is going to be mixed with what people see now. People said he would ruin his legacy by hanging on instead of retiring -- this is exactly how. But ultimately, it's his legacy and if he doesn't mind, that's of course his decision.
If they want to call Shaq the greatest center in a time when the second best center is Vlade Divac........go ahead. There should be an "*", not only since the Spurs's championship, but in this time when the overall competition of teams is laughable. After Vlade.......who's the next center with skills?
By far the saddest thing about Wilt's career is that he is remembered as a Shaq-type player, because he tried throughout his entire career to avoid that image. The truth is, Wilt did just about everything to be known as a finesse player. Instead of dunking, he would do finger rolls. Instead of going inside every possession, he would hang out on the perimeter and take a fallaway shot, much like Malone now does. While still playing the best defense in the league after Russell, he never fouled out of a game. Wilt led the league in assists. In fact, in his one year with the Globetrotters, Wilt played PG! Wilt is also the only player that ever had his number retired by the Globies. In a way, Wilt's self-induced imprisonment in the finesse game was his greatest weakness. Wilt always had a bone to pick with the press, or anyone who challenged his style of play. In that sense, he was very insecure. It has been said by contemporaries that Wilt could have averaged 50 for his career if he really wanted to. Ironically, all Wilt's work to avoid the big-man stereotype has all but gone to waste. Comparisons with Shaq are so frequent that Wilt has been pulled down to Shaq's level. Everyone who has not seen him play, through no fault of their own, assumes that he was Shaq playing in an era of 6'9" centers (Russell) and can therefore be dismissed as an ungainly bruiser. Sad, indeed. As for Wilt shooting from where the 3-line would be, he did do that early on. Neil Johnston was the coach, and he did not like Wilt because he had taken his spot on the team. Wilt had also decimated Johnston during the summer as a high-school player. Besides not being a very good coach, Johnston wanted to make Wilt look as bad as possible, so it's no surprise that he didn't tell Wilt to quit shooting from 20 feet. About TV... they did televise games back then, just not many. The tapes are hard to find. But I will tell you one thing... I've seen the tape of Wilt's first game, and I counted his number of what would now be considered blocks... he had 17. Considering that evidence, you can believe Earl Strom when he says Wilt averaged about 8 blocks/game. If he played in the NBA today, he wouldn't have just syphillis... he'd probably have about 10 STDs .
I agree with Newell...and with you all. Hakeem was something special in his own right. It's funny...Jim Rome was just on TV showing a clip of Shaq doing what he called "a big mans dream shake"
wilt played in a game that had people who were a hell of a lot shorter than the guys today. he also played in a game where people didn't quite realize that they had a LEFT hand as well as a right. basketball hadn't developed back then nearly to the point that it is now. the game has evolved. wilt would not average that many blocks today. he would probably get around 3-4, same as a very good defender. his boarding numbers would go down as well. i don't doubt that wilt would be a very good big man in today's league, whether he would be as dominant as shaq is would be in question though.
The Shaq haters are maggots who fly around old pieces of turd. Did it not occur to you guys that Wilt got to play part (not sure how much) of his career without a 3 second rule? If Shaq got to play a few years without that rule, he'd probably average close to 40 ppg. Maybe more. Also, Wilt was nowhere near as athletic as Shaq was.
Not sure how much? It was one year. They instituted that rule along with the offensive goaltending rule in Wilt's second year because of him. YOU ALSO FORGOT TO MENTION THAT THE LANE WAS WIDENED TO 16 FEET FOR ALMOST ALL OF WILT'S CAREER IN AN EFFORT TO CONTAIN HIM. How do you think Shaq would be doing today with a lane 4 feet wider? Answer me that! Also, Wilt's 50.4 ppg season came after 3 sec. He only managed 37 his rookie year. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha Yeah, suuuurrrreeeeee. You have obviously never seen Wilt play, or you could not say this with a straight face. The sad thing is that the media has brainwashed you sufficiently so that you really believe that. Here's one of Wilt's athletic feats that I don't think I've mentioned yet: Wilt once grabbed a street lamp with both hands, then with his arms fully extended, held on and stretched himself parallel to the ground. I'd LOVE to see Shaq do that, or jump 4 feet off the ground, or run 100 meters in under 10 seconds. Also, I don't think Shaq ever averged more than 48 minutes (48.5) for a season. Why does Shaq need to rest? Wilt didn't need to.
Wilt was nowhere near as athletic as Shaq? What???? He could pass, shoot, defend, block shots...basically do anything he wanted. People say he was just tall and strong like Shaq, but they are wrong. He was also one of the fastest runners and best leapers in the league. Best leapers you say? Yep - 40+ inch vertical. More evidence of freakish athletic ability? After he quit the NBA, he played beach volleyball at a high level for a long time. For those who don't know, beach volleyball requires you to be able to be an all-around great volleyball player with speed, stamina, finesse, and agility. I believe Shaq is a great center - but I wouldn't compare his athletic skills to Wilt's favorably.
God, am I sick of this "Shaq is the greatest" crap. All of the "so called" experts ASSUME this, then substantiate ther contention by proclaiming how he "dominates the leauge like no other center is history" Well I sure hope he does dominate the leauge. At that freak of nature size, I would wonder if he did not dominate. ESP in a leauge that has not one other dominant center. Boy, I bet Russell, Chamberlin, Abdul-Jabbar, and Hakeem would have been just as "Dominat" had they not had to play one another (Russell/Chamberlin) (Hakeem/Abdul-jabbar) or even someone such as Ewing, or David Robinson. This arguement about how great Shaq is is complete and utter CRAP. We already saw what happened when Shaq had to play a real center in his prime. The end result of that was that Shaq's, Burger King munchin, elbow throwin, traveling, freethrow missin, wannabe rappin, clumsy, overweight, oaf ass, was put to shame and SWEPT out of the finals. The result would be just the same now if there were still one or more dominant centers in the leauge. Shaq recently commented on this fact, saying he wished there were other dominant centers in the leauge, as he welcomes the challenge. Yea right, if there were he would be exposed again, just as he was in 1995.
Shaq is clearly not the greatest of all time, he's just the greatest center right now, but that really doesn't say much. I say Shaq's days are numbered, I've been noticing that every year he puts on more and more pounds, eventually he will get so big that he won't be able to do what he does now. Well he will still be able to over power people and use his off arm to fend off shot blockers but he will no longer have his quickness. If I had to put a time table on the whole situation, I'd say give it less then 5 years and he will no longer be considered the best.
Ducan is a center in my opinion but I think he should actually be referred to as a dominant Power Forward since that's the position he plays. Maybe at one time Zo was dominating on the defensive end but not anymore, and he was never dominant on the offensive end.
And Hakeem didn't have the power game. This guy is just off his rocker. How does he think the Rockets got to the Finals in '86? They played the best team of all-time reasonably tough without All-Star Ralph Sampson, who decided to take himself out of the series. Akeem was all power back then. Geez. I don't know, I think a lot of people are just stupid. I mean, hanging on too long doesn't seem to have affected Ali's legacy...or Jabbar, Bird, Magic, Montana, etc. Hakeem just wasn't a big media guy and was never really hyped, that's the only explanation.
Or, gasp, maybe he wasn't as good as the mentioned players. When people put Hakeem up there with Magic/Jordan, that's a bit much.
