With the Golden State Warriors winning the 2022 NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics, it has stirred up a lot of debate in the NBA community. Specifically, the argument for Stephen Curry’s place in the NBA’s top 10 all-time players has caught some fire.
Many have started the argument that Curry has cracked the list of top 10 all-time players list, but others believe he still needs to prove himself. NBA analyst Shannon Sharpe certainly believes that the former statement is true.
In a recent episode of ‘Undisputed,’ Sharpe shared his updated list of the top 10 players of all-time. He revealed to add Curry to his list, he has bumped off Shaq.
https://twitter.com/undisputed/status/1538895065577361408
“Skip, I said this was the only thing that was missing from his resume. He got his first Finals MVP, he’s a 2-time regular season MVP, the only unanimous winner of that award, he’s a 4-time champ, he’s a 2-time scoring champ, and how he changed the game of basketball, Skip, I don’t know if we can properly quantify what he’s done for and to the game of basketball.
Skip, the guy that I bumped out of the top 10 was Shaq. It was between he and Kobe. My list, I got – Bron, Jordan, Kareem, Magic, Wilt, Bird, Tim Duncan – 15-time All-Defense, 15-time All-NBA, 15-time All-Star, 3 times he was a Finals MVP, 2 times he was a league MVP – Bill Russell, Kobe – Kobe got everything out of his career… and then I got Steph.”
Sharpe further explained, “Skip, the thing is that I’m most disappointed in Shaq and I know Shaq has 4 titles, but I don’t believe Shaq got everything out of his career. Skip, I don’t believe we’ll ever see a guy as physically gifted as a big man as Shaquille O’Neal. 7-foot-1, 325-335, could run, athletic, agile, nimble, but Skip, he didn’t work.
He should’ve been the all-time scoring leader. He should’ve had 6-7 championships, if he’d had the work ethic. And because of that, Skip, after the age of 30 he never scored more than 23 points in a game. Steph Curry just won finals MVP at the age of 32.”
To be honest, Shaq was indeed one of the most dominant superstars of his time. But had he taken better care of his body, he might have won a couple of more NBA Championships.
Winning four NBA titles is not an easy feat by any means. But Shaq’s prime could have been extended, he would have become the undisputed best center of all-time and could have even entered the GOAT debate.
