Former NBA player Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf had the fortune of playing alongside the great Shaquille O’Neal at LSU in 1989-90, but he doesn’t consider the Hall of Famer the most talented player on that team. Abdul-Rauf appeared on the All The Smoke podcast, where he spoke glowingly of one Stanley Roberts.
“Stanley, by far, was way more talented and skillful than Shaq,” Abdul-Rauf said. “Stanley could shoot it. He can shoot his free throws, and he can take you down. And now he didn’t have the Shaq bringing it up whole court. And even Shaq admitted it. Shaq said, look, ‘Stanley dominated him.'”
Now, that is saying a lot. Someone dominating O’Neal of all people and being far more talented and skilled? Well, the 54-year-old admitted it is all true as he reacted to the clip on Instagram.
“He telling the truth,” O’Neal wrote.
Now, you might be wondering why someone so talented has been lost to history to the point that his name barely ever gets brought up today. Well, Abdul-Rauf can give you a reason why.
“I had to sometimes piss him off,” Abdul-Rauf stated. “Coach be like, ‘Man, get under his skin.’… He’ll go off, but he’ll be missing two, three days. He’ll just show you I can do this, and then he won’t. So he didn’t have that discipline and that work ethic.
“And I remember telling him one summer,” Abdul-Rauf continued. “… I had tears in my eyes. I would talk to him ’cause I knew him. I said, ‘Stanley, man,’ I said, ‘Man, if you just work hard, be consistent.’ I said, ‘Man, you can write your ticket. You can name your price.’ He looks at me… He said, ‘Chris, man, I appreciate you.’… He said, ‘I ain’t going to listen.'”
Roberts was his own worst enemy. He seemed destined to get to the very top, but it wasn’t to be.
Roberts first made a name for himself at Lower Richland High School in Hopkins, South Carolina. He led the Diamond Hornets to back-to-back state titles in 1987 and 1988 and is regarded by some to be the greatest high school player to come out of South Carolina.
Following those exploits at Lower Richland, Roberts headed to LSU. He sat out his freshman season due to academic ineligibility and then averaged 14.1 points, 9.8 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 0.6 steals, and 1.9 blocks per game as a sophomore in 1989-90.
Despite Roberts, O’Neal, and Abdul-Rauf all being on that team, LSU still lost to Georgia Tech in the second round of the NCAA tournament. It was their final game as teammates.
Roberts chose to head overseas afterward and played one season for Real Madrid. He then returned to the States, and the Orlando Magic would select him with the 23rd pick in the 1991 NBA Draft.
Roberts would show flashes of excellence as a rookie, and one of his best performances came against Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls. He had 18 points (8-13 FG), nine rebounds, and two blocks in the Magic’s 111-108 win over the Bulls on March 21, 1992. After the game, Jordan went over to the road team’s locker room and spoke to Roberts.
“Man — good game, Big Stan,” Jordan said, via The State’s Michael Lananna. “You play like that every night, and I guarantee the sky’s the limit. You’ll be one of the greatest players to ever play this game.”
Roberts would have another great game against Jordan and the Bulls on Feb. 4, 1993, for the Los Angeles Clippers, who had acquired him from the Magic in 1992. He put up 22 points (10-14 FG), 15 rebounds, two assists, and two steals for the Clippers in a 107-105 loss in overtime.
The talent was there, but Roberts wouldn’t come close to reaching his potential. He was also troubled by weight issues and suffered some devastating injuries. He first ruptured his right Achilles tendon in 1993 and then his left in 1994.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Roberts suffered fractured discs in his back and later a torn rotator cuff in his shoulder. He remarkably managed to return from all of those injuries, but was then kicked out of the NBA in 1999. He had tested positive for what the league said was an “amphetamine-based designer drug.”
Roberts was reinstated in 2003, but didn’t play another NBA game. In all, he averaged 8.5 points, 5.2 rebounds, 0.6 assists, 0.4 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game in eight seasons. You can’t help but wonder what might have been.
