Shaquille O’Neal is one of the few lucky basketball players in the world who can say he has played against Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant in their NBA careers.
Therefore, with his stacked resume and numerous accolades in his career, the Big Diesel is uniquely positioned to comment on who among these three was the greatest to ever play the sport.
In the latest episode of his podcast, ‘The Big Podcast with Shaq’, the NBA legend sat down with Jim Jones and spoke about the GOAT debate. Jones asked him who among the three guards: Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant was the “illest” one on the court that he had seen play.
O’Neal started with the broader topic of the GOAT Debate before directly addressing the Allen Iverson part of the question. Additionally, he brought LeBron James into the mix as well.
“In high school, Mike was like ‘ah’ but then when you playing with him, like this motherf—–r was really like that. No, he was really like that. Kobe came in with the mentality, but he didn’t have it, right? So, I used to beat him up all the time. We used to beat him out.”
“A lot of people don’t realize his first two years, he ain’t get a lot of playing time. And the coach we had didn’t didn’t play all that well. Like, he was sitting down on the bench, but he just kept working, kept working. Then he developed that,” said O’Neal.
“I’m not familiar with with with Mike’s first couple years, but it’s just different. LeBron is is a bigger Magic Johnson to me. The game is different.”
“And you know, you made a good point about how we all had our time. I hate when they try to compare generation, but they ask me the question all the time and I’m always give the same answer,” said O’Neal in frustration before revealing his GOAT.
“Mike is the greatest of all time because of how he played, how he dominated and he never lost in the finals. So I know a lot of people going to see this like you said and oh he doing this and he do that.”
“I played with Kobe. I know what a killer he was. But to me, as a kid and going against him, then being the only guy to beat him in the playoffs, for him to retire after three and then come back and get three. Yeah. He was a different animal,” O’Neal concluded.
O’Neal has been teammates with both Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, and for him to still say Michael Jordan was the greatest to ever play the game has a significant amount of weightage in coming to a consensus for an answer.
Subsequently, Jim Jones circled back to Iverson and asked the Lakers’ legend if Iverson was one the hardest guards he ever played against. And yet again, O’Neal answered the question with a twist.
He brought up the NBA legend Dikembe Mutombo and how he was responsible for the 76ers losing to the Lakers in the NBA Finals.
“Yes, I do. And I feel for Iverson that they had to meet us in the Finals, but it wasn’t his fault. It was Dikembe Mutombo’s fault,” O’Neal said before narrating how he felt Dikembe Mutombo had dissed him by saying he was an “okay” player and claiming the 76ers big man could take him one-on-one.
O’Neal admitted he saw oppositions not double-teaming him as a sign of disrespect and thus Mutombo brought out an unstoppable side of him.
“But listen, I love AI. AI is one of the one of the greatest players ever. And it’s unfortunate that we live in a world where people judge you based on your championship. He just didn’t have the right team,” said O’Neal in conclusion.
Therefore, it seems that while O’Neal gives Iverson his flowers for being one of the greatest ever, the Big Diesel’s response indicates the 76ers legend is not a common name in people’s usual list of their top-three players in the GOAT debate. It is still down to being between Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Kobe Bryant.
