8) Shaquille O’Neal
The newly retired Shaquille O’Neal is this high on the list because for three years of his career, from 2000-2002, his mere presence on the Lakers ensured they were going to win a championship. Kobe Bryant was an enormous help who has proven that he can win titles as the lead dog too, but Shaq’s three seasons amidst the Laker three-peat was the most dominant stretch anyone in the NBA, besides Wilt, has ever had. 7’1”, 325 pounds, the strongest player in the league, explosively athletic for his size, Shaq was Triton amongst the minnows.
Shaq only has one MVP award lining his trophy case, but that’s just a bad joke, twice losing to Tim Duncan. Though Duncan may have taken the MVP hardware, if you had asked any GM, writer, analyst, or fan who they would take to win a championship those years, O’Neal or Duncan, they would have said, “Shaq” before you could finish the question. O’Neal in his prime beats Duncan at his peak, and that’s why Shaq edges Duncan on this list.
Shaq’s career averages of 24 points and 11 rebounds per game are terrific, but they were dragged down by the last three or four seasons where he declined precipitously. Even so, I’m not going to let the fact that O’Neal hung on too long obscure the 12-year run of brilliance he contributed to the league.
Four championships; three Finals MVPs; eight-time top-5 finisher in MVP voting; fifth on the NBA all-time scoring list; gold medal at the 1996 Olympics; 1993 Rookie of the Year; fourteen All-NBA selections, including 8 times on the first team; 15 All-Star selections; was the league’s second-leading rebounder four times and top-5 in blocks five times; and ten times he finished first league-wide in field goal percentage.
O'Neal played much of his career in a league where David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Tim Duncan also patrolled the paint, probably the greatest era of big men in NBA history.
The thing that sticks in my craw is that despite all his amazing accomplishments, Shaq could have—and probably should have—done more. He never kept himself in good enough shape and kept no secret of the fact that he would play his way into shape during the season rather than training hard in the offseason. Shaq’s free-throw shooting never improved, though perhaps his hands were just too big to shoot accurately from that distance.
Finally, though Shaq is by all accounts a charismatic, fun, and good-natured person, his personality and ego are both larger than life, leading to the numerous times he became too much to handle for teams. That’s why he’s played for the Magic, Lakers, Heat, Suns, Cavs, and Celtics in his career. Had Shaq and Kobe been able to co-exist, they may have won five or six championships instead of three.
Clearly in criticizing Shaq I’m nitpicking, but that’s how you separate the greatest players because none of them have enormous holes in their résumés. Shaq was dominant in a way most people my age have never seen before. He was a champion, he was clutch, and he was insanely productive statistically. With all that said, it could have been more, and that’s why Shaq isn’t higher on the list.
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| #8 Shaquille O'Neal |
7) Larry Bird
First, he gets enormous credit for playing in an era with great Pistons teams, the emergence of Jordan, and the equally dynastic Showtime Lakers. I picked Bird over Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, and Oscar Robertson because his numbers are somewhat comparable and he played in a much less offense-friendly era. So many more shots were taken, and so many more rebounds and assists were available when the Big O, Baylor, and West played. Bird also ranks this high because like Jordan and Kobe, he was one of the most competitive and clutch players to ever grace the court, even known league-wide as a vicious trash talker.
At 6’9” with range from the locker room, great ball handling, and terrific passing, Bird was an indefensible presence, comfortable in the post, on the wing, at the top of the key, and bombing away from deep. Bird was like Dirk Nowitzki except with a more competitive drive, better court vision, and decidedly more skills as a passer. Struggling with back issues and other injuries, he missed an entire season plus significant time in others, so as a result his career totals aren’t maybe what they could be, but they’re still damn impressive.
For his career Bird averaged 24 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 steals a game and was a lifetime 89% free throw shooter, 50% from the field, and 37% from the three point line. An extreme rarity for a single season, Bird nearly reached the vaunted 90, 50, 40 mark—shooting 90% from the line, 50% from the field, and 40% from deep—for his entire career.
Bird was a three-time MVP in the same era as Magic, Kareem, and Jordan. He also finished top-3 in the MVP voting eight times and was runner up four times. Thus Bird was the best or second-best player in the league seven times. His Celtics teams won three titles, and Bird claimed two Finals MVPs as well.
Larry Legend made ten All-NBA teams, nine times First Team, once the Second. The 1980 Rookie of the Year also made Second Team All-Defense three times. Save for the year he was injured, he made the All-Star Game every year of his career. Even as his career wound down the All-Star selections weren’t phony either. Bird went out as an elite player averaging 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists in his final season.
Also a member of the gold medal-winning "Dream Team" at the 1992 Olympics, Bird, and his duels with Magic Johnson, gave us one of basketball's greatest rivalries. The drama even stretched back to their college days when they met in 1979 NCAA Championship, Bird with Indiana State and Johnson with Michigan State. Facing off time and again with the Celtics and Lakers, the two fueled each other, loved each other off the court and hated each other on it. As a precursor to the exploits of one Michael Jordan, these two fostered in perhaps the most popular era the NBA—hell, the entire sport of basketball—has ever experienced.
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| #7 Larry Bird |
--from @AdamHocking
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