Tim Duncan and Shaquille O’Neal had many iconic battles on the court during their storied careers and went down as two of the greatest players in NBA history. Considering all that they achieved, the two also get compared quite often, and NBA fans think Duncan deserves to be higher than O’Neal on the all-time list.
A fan is amazed Duncan never had a losing season, “No losing seasons is crazy.”
One fan made the case for Duncan being the most underrated player ever, “Duncan the most underrated player in history. Walking 55+ wins each year for the franchise. No superstars playing with him for 19 years.”
A fan boldly stated that Duncan is even greater than Kobe Bryant, “He had better stats than Kobe, I don’t know why people put Kobe over him.”
One says they would take Duncan over O’Neal in a hypothetical draft, “All I know is if I’m drafting I’m taking Tim #1 over Shaq.”
Duncan is one of the five best players ever, said one fan, “Tim is top 5 all time.”
One fan says Duncan is the better player, but O’Neal had the greater prime, “Timmy’s better, but Shaq’s prime was just another level.”
Let’s have a look at how the careers of these two stack up.
Shaquille O’Neal’s career stats: 23.7 points, 10.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 0.6 steals, and 2.3 blocks per game
Tim Duncan’s career stats: 19.0 points, 10.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 0.7 steals, and 2.2 blocks per game
Shaquille O’Neal’s accomplishments: 4x NBA champion, 3x Finals MVP, 1x MVP, 15x All-Star, 2x scoring champion, 8x All-NBA First Team, 2x All-NBA Second Team, 4x All-NBA Third Team, 3x NBA All-Defensive Second Team
Tim Duncan’s accomplishments: 5x NBA champion, 3x Finals MVP, 2x MVP, 15x All-Star, 10x All-NBA First Team, 3x All-NBA Second Team, 2x All-NBA Third Team, 8x NBA All-Defensive First Team, 7x NBA All-Defensive Second Team
I think a fair assessment is that Duncan had the greater career, but O’Neal had the better prime. I’m not sure there are too many players who had a better and more dominant peak than O’Neal did.
He led the Los Angeles Lakers to a historic three-peat from 2000 to 2002 and teams simply had no answer for him. That includes the Duncan-led San Antonio Spurs, who lost two playoff series to the Lakers in that time while winning just one game in both of them combined. They were swept in 2001 and then lost 4-1 in 2002.
The problem, of course, is that the dominant peak for O’Neal just didn’t last very long. He never took great care of his body and had he done that, this wouldn’t really have been a debate. Now, we did a career comparison of Duncan and O’Neal, with the former winning out fairly easily.
Shaquille O’Neal Wouldn’t Disagree With Anyone Who Says Tim Duncan Is The GOAT
It is not easy for someone to earn O’Neal’s respect, but Duncan certainly did. He has always been very complimentary of the Spurs icon and O’Neal even stated he wouldn’t argue with anyone who says Duncan is the GOAT.
“The Spurs won because of Tim Duncan, a guy I could never break. I could talk trash to Patrick Ewing, get in David Robinson’s face, get a rise out of Alonzo Mourning, but when I went at Tim he’d look at me like he was bored. Whenever I run into a Tim Duncan fan who will claim Tim Duncan is the GOAT, I won’t disagree with him.”
Duncan isn’t really in that GOAT conversation, but he is undoubtedly the greatest power forward ever. He may have been the most boring superstar to watch in action but got the job done in a manner that few have in NBA history.
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