Everyone agrees that the center position isn’t nearly as loaded anymore as it was in the ’90s. The modern NBA has allowed guards to become more dominant, as centers don’t carry the same weight as they did. Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid are massive exceptions to that, becoming the first centers to win MVP awards after Shaquille O’Neal in 2000.
Shaq posted a picture of him and reigning league MVP Embiid on social media, asking fans who wins a one-on-one. Safe to say, people overwhelmingly chose Shaq.
i like these conversations. give me your thoughts. you already know mine. #barbecuechickenalert pic.twitter.com/NZdrZK5uzg
— SHAQ (@SHAQ) July 3, 2023
76ers President Daryl Morey chimed in with a lock emoji, implying that Embiid would lock Shaq up.
🔒
— Daryl Morey 🗽🏀 (@dmorey) July 3, 2023
A fan thinks no player in NBA history would’ve been able to lock up prime Shaq.
https://twitter.com/abelh1024/status/1675695362948956160
One fan went a little too far and said Shaq would average 100 points and 38 rebounds in the modern NBA, a quite asinine thing to say.
Shaq in todays nba would be like when wilt came into the league and was dropping a 100pts and 38rebounds against guys half his size
— supe (@superman5142) July 3, 2023
More people echoed their support for Shaq.
Big fella! Embiid would not stand a chance with young Shaq. Just sayin'.
— D. Lockhart (@RealLockhartUSA) July 3, 2023
A fan mocked Embiid’s tendency to flop.
LMAO he’s definitely flopping every chance he gets until Shaq is fouled out.
— JaVale McGoat (@lakeshow_wess) July 3, 2023
Fans continued harping on Shaq’s legacy as the most unstoppable player in the NBA.
Nobody can stop prime Shaq. Most unguardable player of all time.
— T.J. Kibbles (@TJKibbles) July 3, 2023
One fan boldly declared that there hasn’t been a player born that could stop Shaq in his prime.
There is still a player to be born that would be capable of locking up prime Shaq
— JB | ✠ Spartacus da Colina ✠ (@GiantOfTheHill) July 3, 2023
Even though I love Embiid and what he’s done in marrying the skills of old-school big men with modern big men, he wouldn’t stop Shaq. O’Neal was a near-impossible assignment for some of the greatest defensive centers of all time, so Embiid would struggle to live up to that expectation.
The only players that can claim to have objectively locked Shaq up are Hakeem Olajuwon in the 1995 NBA Finals and Ben Wallace in the 2004 NBA Finals. Even then, the sample size of any archetype of a big man being effective against Shaq doesn’t really point to anything.
He averaged 23.7 points, 10.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 2.3 blocks during his career and dominated until he started going out of shape in the late 2000s.
Joel Embiid’s Future In Philadelphia Under Question
Embiid’s 76ers are in the midst of another dramatic offseason after James Harden’s reported trade request to find a new team this summer. This is the third time in five years that Embiid is losing one of his co-stars, with Jimmy Butler and Ben Simmons preceding the Harden situation.
Not getting value for Harden back onto the roster will be the final straw for the only MVP to never have progressed past the second round, as Embiid will likely need to ask out if he wants to win a title. The 76ers do have the space to open up enough room to go free-agent hunting next season, so Embiid likely waits to see how everything plays out.
He averaged 33.1 points, 10.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists, and 1.7 blocks last season and was awarded the MVP before disappearing in the playoffs.
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