Philadelphia 76ers superstar Joel Embiid is undoubtedly one of the best players in the league right now. He is a frontrunner to win this season’s MVP award for his stellar performances throughout the year.
On top of that, with a newly formed duo alongside James Harden, Embiid has a solid chance at winning the first-ever NBA Championship of his career. He is certainly doing the work for it as he leads the league in points per game with an average of 29.7.
Looking at him dominating the league with ease and destroying opponents in a 1 vs. 1 battle, he reminds most fans of none other than NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal. For many, Shaq is considered to be the best center of all time.
So one might wonder what would happen if Shaq and Embiid faced off against each other? Which player would be victorious? Well, NBA analyst Jay Williams believes Shaq will have a tough time guarding Embiid if this matchup were to happen.
“I think Shaq would have fits trying to guard him. Shaq wouldn’t be able to guard him. I would put him on the perimeter all day long… He was an athlete but still, I know scouting reports back when he was a young Shaq when they would just string him out on the perimeter because he still had a hard time guarding pick-and-rolls. Joel Embiid don’t guard pick-and-rolls either. I’m saying I would put Joel Embiid in that situation.”
(starts at 4:25)
Now, this is a hot take and something that not many will be in support of. Shaq is an NBA Top 75 player and Embiid might be pretty good but winning against O’Neal is not an easy task.
Moreover, if Shaq watched this video, he will certainly have a few things to say about it. He is not someone who keeps his thoughts to himself. We saw that when Shaq recently slammed fans who claimed that the Harden-Embiid duo can reach the level of Kobe-Shaq duo.
At the end of the day, it is still a hypothetical situation, albeit an interesting one. Unfortunately, there is no way to find out the outcome of this imaginary 1 vs. 1 battle.
