The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the most iconic franchises in the history of the NBA. Throughout their history, they have been home to some of the greatest NBA players that have graced the league with their presence.
Evidently, when someone is asked to pick their favorite player from all the legends that have donned the iconic Purple and Gold jersey, they seem to keep scratching their hands.
Recently, Shaq took on this challenge where he had to eliminate one Laker from the all-time list of great players. The list featured Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal, Wilt Chamberlain, and LeBron James.
If you ask any other NBA fan or analyst, they’d probably pick LBJ or Wilt to be knocked off this list of the greatest Lakers players of all-time. However, Shaq picked himself to be taken off the list.
The statement by O’Neal confused fans as most believed during his time with the Lakers, he certainly earned legendary status. As a result, in the recent episode of “The Big Podcast,” Shaq defended his response and explained why he wanted to take himself off the list.
(Starts at 18:54)
Via The Big Podcast:
“I don’t know what people look at but I look at status. So let’s talk about rings first, right? So Kareem has six, Kobe has five, Magic has five. So there’s three players right there. LeBron has four and Wilt only has two. But now let’s go to points. LeBron got more points than me and Wilt got more points than me, right? MVPs. Wilt has more MVPs. LeBron has more MVPs. That’s why I take myself out. Wilt has 2,000 more points than me. I know he got less rings, less finals MVPs, but he got 2,000 more points than me. So that’s why I edged him over myself.
The points that Shaq made on the podcast are correct. But it seems like Diesel misunderstood the question.
The original question was who are the greatest Lakers players of all-time, and you had to kick one off that list. It means for this question, the only parameter to take into consideration is what the players achieved in the NBA while wearing a Laker jersey.
Regardless, it’s good to know that Shaq is humble enough to accept the fact that some players are ahead of him in the all-time rankings. But when it comes to being a Lakers legend, every fan will pick Shaq over the likes of LBJ and Wilt.
