Gilbert Arenas has shared an interesting take about how Shaquille O’Neal‘s dominance caused a generation of big men to become power forwards instead of centers, naming players like Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan who came up in the Shaq era but were played like 7-foot power forwards.
“Shaq messed up history in a sense. Think about the KGs, and you think about the Van Horns, Tim Duncan, and all these guys that were supposed to be the next generation of 5s. They’re like, ‘F** no’ and went to the 4. When you talk about what happened to the 5-man, they became 4 men, and then our 5s got washed out. Back then, there weren’t many 4s. Now your 4-man is 6’10, 6’11, and your 5-man, so you basically have two 7-footers versus, you know, Charles Barkley and those guys who were 6’4 or 6’5.”
Arenas may have a point with this take. O’Neal domination led to teams throwing out center rotations just to have players provide physicality and absorb fouls. The elite centers that Shaq competed against came before his time, with the only legitimate challengers to him being Yao Ming and Dwight Howard later in his career.
The 2000s were defined by three power forwards who rank as arguably the best three to ever play the position. These three were Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, and Kevin Garnett. Nowitzki’s game would’ve meant he was always going to primarily be a four and rarely play as the five, but Garnett and Duncan kept switching across frontcourt positions, showing that they could also be centers at a high level.
O’Neal led the Lakers to a three-peat from 2000 to 2002, winning three Finals MVPs in a run that made many consider Shaq the most dominant player the league has ever seen.
No Center Won MVP For Over 20 Years After Shaquille O’Neal
The center position was considered to have been dying out throughout the late-2000s and 2010s. After Shaq faded from the spotlight, Dwight Howard was the only center consistently playing at a high level but even he faded quickly due to injuries. This led to various centers coming into the spotlight like Joakim Noah, DeAndre Jordan, and more across this era.
This was an era that was dominated by the three power forwards we mentioned earlier, with all of them winning MVPs and championships. Duncan and Nowitzki both won Finals MVP, while Garnett and Duncan were both Defensive Players of the Year winners. All positions in the league saw MVP winners but O’Neal’s 2000 MVP was the last time a center won it until Nikola Jokic broke the curse in 2021.
Since Jokic’s 2021 triumph, only he and Joel Embiid have won MVPs, keeping the position within the centers. The power forward position isn’t as deep as it used to be with Giannis Antetokounmpo being the only out-and-out power forward, with other stars in the ‘position’ rotating in and out of it like LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, and Jayson Tatum.
The NBA is a cycle and now we’re in an era dominated by guards and wings. But the health of big men in the future looks solid, especially with young prospects like Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembanyama promising to terrify a generation as sweet-shooting centers.
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