It’s often debated which is the best era of basketball, and Shaquille O’Neal has now chimed in on the subject. Former NBA player Mike Bibby asked O’Neal that question on the Straight Game Podcast, and he went with their era.
“Our era,” O’Neal said. “… ’80s was tougher and more physical, but our era was the best basketball. I argue with [Charles Barkley] and them all the time. They be tryna pit these teams together as rivalries. We had a real rivalry. Our rivalry was so bad, his boys tried to jump me.”
O’Neal’s Los Angeles Lakers and Bibby’s Sacramento Kings did indeed have a great rivalry. The two teams faced off in the 2000, 2001, and 2002 playoffs, with the Lakers winning on all three occasions.
Bibby wasn’t on the Kings for those first two matchups, but he was for the last one, and they nearly took down the Lakers then. Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals proved to be highly controversial, and all of that led to a fair bit of bad blood between the teams.
Getting back to the topic at hand, O’Neal has also stated that the early 2000s were the hardest era for him to play in. He was utterly dominant at the time, though, winning MVP in 2000 and leading the Lakers to a three-peat from 2000 to 2002.
While O’Neal succeeded, he doesn’t believe too many of today’s players would. The 53-year-old named LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Anthony Edwards as the only three players who could have played in his time.
As for this era, well, O’Neal thinks he would average 50 points a game in it.
“Somebody asked me the other day what would I average,” O’Neal stated. “I would average 50. The reason why I would average 50 is because I wouldn’t do what everybody else is doing.
“You shoot a three on me, [Nikola Jokic], you better make it,” O’Neal continued. “Because I’mma run by you, stand in the middle of the lane, and watch your whole team go, ‘Three seconds!’ And Penny gonna push that b***h and throw it, and I’mma dunk it.
“I know for a fact I’ll make 15 twos before you make 10 threes,” O’Neal added.” I’m getting 30. I’m getting 30 every night. And then now, when you foul somebody, it’s a flagrant, so guys don’t really want to foul you hard. Motherf***ers, That’s another 10 points right there.
“Then, I’mma concentrate on that f***ing free throw, get that elbow, that’s 45 points right there,” O’Neal concluded.
As great as O’Neal was, he isn’t averaging 50 points in today’s NBA. All the spacing will help him, but there are other factors that won’t. The pace of the game is much higher, and the bigs nowadays have to constantly step out and defend on the perimeter.
O’Neal’s conditioning was never quite top-notch, and he’d be worn down to the point where 50 points a night just isn’t attainable. The 15-time All-Star would be a force in today’s NBA, just not to the extent that he thinks he’d be.
O’Neal averaged 23.7 points, 10.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 0.6 steals, and 2.3 blocks per game in his 19-year career. You’d reckon that the career scoring average would have been closer to 30 if he were playing today.
