http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dime-071108 "I'm still the baddest [expletive] in the world," Shaq said. "Yeah, I'm getting older, but Kareem got older. Hakeem got older. "I don't need earthlings' respect. When it's all said and done, my name will be there and it will be mentioned ... unless you earthlings try to erase it."
I'm going to miss Shaq when he's done playing. I didn't get into basketball until high school, so Shaq's career is the first hall of fame career that I've really followed from the beginning to the end. When you combine his on court dominance with his off the court entertainment value and his excellent quotes and soundbytes, nobody is even on the same planet as The Diesel.
There were other interesting freaks before Shaq Daryl Dawkins : Chocoalte Thunder Flying and of course Sir Charles but none were as dominate at Shaq
Considering Wilt only won two championships and one as the main guy. I could argue Shaq as the most dominant ever.
Miami has lost 14 games in a row! Shaq must have already come back to earth, he just hasn't realized it yet!
Wilt was the ONLY player to break the Celtics dominance in the 60's. The Lakers with West and Elgin Baylor couldn't. The Knicks with Walt "Clyde" Frazier and Willis Reed couldn't. Plus he had to contend with HOF bigs like Petit, Russell, the greatest defender ever, Nate Thurmond, Walt Bellamy, Willis Reed, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and owned them all. When Shaq was in his prime, the second best center in the NBA was either Zydrunas Ilgauskas or Ben Wallace. Sharp dropoff there. I could go over how gaudy Wilt's physical ability was but I'd run the risk of sounding like I was talking about Chuck Norris. Let's just stick to one simple fact; when he was 50, he could still bench 500 pounds.
shaq is a proud guy after all that he's accomplished in his career. hes not going to admit that he can only be effectve for 24-30 minutes a game now.
