Shaquille O’Neal is one of the greatest centers that the NBA has seen, and he is well-known for being one of the most physically dominant players ever. O’Neal led the Los Angeles Lakers to a three-peat during his tenure on the team and won 3 Finals MVP awards as a result. Shaquille O’Neal’s career averages are 23.7 PPG, 10.9 RPG, and 2.5 APG over the course of his career.
One of the players that Shaquille O’Neal faced during his career was Hakeem Olajuwon, who won two championships in 1994 and 1995. He has won multiple DPOY awards and was the 1993-94 MVP. He also notably beat Shaquille O’Neal in the 1995 Finals.
Both of the players mentioned above are generally viewed as top-10 players of all time. However, both were omitted from ESPN’s Top 10 from the NBA 75 team, leading to a lot of controversy about the list. There have already been multitudes of fans who criticized the network over Kobe Bryant’s positioning on the list, which many viewed as disrespectful.
ESPN’s Top 10 players from #NBA75 team:
1) Michael Jordan
2) LeBron James
3) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
4) Magic Johnson
5) Wilt Chamberlain
6) Bill Russell
7) Larry Bird
8) Tim Duncan
9) Oscar Robertson
10) Kobe Bryant
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) February 22, 2022
There is no doubt that a lot of this list can be debated. But at the same time, any list of this kind is subjective. Besides Shaquille O’Neal and hotly contested selections on this list is Oscar Robertson, but even he was a legend during his era, a championship-winner, and an MVP. While most people would agree that he is ranked a little high, he is still an all-time great.
It remains to be seen if any current players besides LeBron James will manage to crack this list in the future. This generation has a lot of great players such as Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant. While they are not viewed as top-10 players by most fans currently, there is still a chance they can add to their resume in the future. Even if they do make the top-10 all-time list though, there will still be debates about their inclusion, just like there are debates about this list today. The debates will likely never end, as there have been great players in the past, but there will also be great players in the future.
