Shaq is a legend and the best player in the post-MJ generation. His presence in the NBA will be missed.
Bye Shaq, thanks for the memories. I hope you will enjoy whatever you decide to do next after basketball. Well, stay out of doing rap music and leave that to the better ones. Good luck.
Amazing career... LA would not have won Championships early in the 2000s if he wasnt there... Definity a Hall of Fame and IHMO he is the a top 10 centre in the league.. Many young players will follow his footsteps.
First Phil Jackson gets an anti climatic ending to a HOF career, and now Shaq. Is 2011 the end of an era for traditional big men? Yao - injured, might never play again Shaq - injured, probably retiring Duncan - no longer the same player, team gets upset in first round
Shaq was incredible...probably one of the top 1% gifted athletes ever in the history of the world. His size, strength, and speed were unmatched in basketball and probably any other sport. It was a pleasure watching the guy play. So long big fella.
He did allright. My biggest problem with Shaq was his lack of basketball skill. For the majority of his career, he was just a giant guy that could run and jump, at least compared to the rest of the bigs. He was never an elite (or in my eyes, even great) defender, never developed a well-rounded offensive game... dude was just a freakish athlete, both in size and power/speed. Hakeem blew me away because how he switched from being just a freakish athlete, to a skilled craftsman on both ends of the floor that was capable of shutting down anybody on defense, and then embarrassing them as he pirouetted to the bucket on offense. I find it harder to have ultimate respect for a guy whom the majority of his talent came from genealogy, rather than the gym.
before his prime, he did alright against hakeem but he killed drob. his defense is underrated. he's just lazy on defense. but i think he had guarded yao better than howard ever did and howard's 2-time DPOY already. did i mention he's a better shot blocker than howard? i understand skill over talent argument but in the end only the results matter.
Ewing,Olajuwon,Rodman,Daugherty,J.ONeal (in his prime), Illguaskas,Howard Now that I look at the people named the 90s and 00s were weak but not that weak for centers, but there was some legendary battles and amazing players. Shaq dominated all of the above on many occasions and is going to be remembered as a top 10 player of all time. SHAQ thank you for all of your amazing <iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vlQ19XoF-fQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8TB2_KrpYqQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Rodman? LOL Daughtery? Who? Jermaine O'Neal, really? Ilgauskas, yes, Howard, was a baby though. Super, super weak era post-97 for bigs.
Because, he is not a douchebag, and is actually an honorable man. It's kind of sad that you youngsters don't find admiring in people.
post-97, there're still zo, mutombo, sabonis, divac, dale davis, Ilgauskas, ben wallace, yao ... and drob and rik smits ain't too bad before 2000. shaq murdered them all, 3 of which were DPOY. he outplayed TD too. if you call that super weak, what would you describe the competition howard faces today? and why would it matter anyway? shaq destroyed anyone except hakeem BEFORE 97. who do you want to see him play against? kareem or chamberlain?
Wilt, he could match him strength wise and might be more athletic. I think if Patrick Ewing and David Robinson (in his prime), and even Yao could have some success against Shaq. Definitely think Chamberlain could On the other hand, a younger Kareem against Shaq might do very well, very athletic and nimble, which often times works against Shaq.
All of whom I already mentioned, and serve to do nothing but point out the obvious lack of quality bigs post-97. Wallace and Mutombo were DPOYs and did get pwnt by Shaq, but DPOY or not, no one is going to mistake those guys for all-time greats. A lot of this goes back to my beef with Shaq's basketball skill vs. his basketball athleticism. When you've got 4-5 inches and almost 70-80lbs over the DPOY, it doesn't take a whole hell of a lot to pwn them I'd imagine. He rarely, if ever, played straight up on TD, the power forward. Irrelevant. That'd be nice! Look, bottom line is, everyone regards the late 90s and early 2000's as the "guard-centric" NBA era. It's not just me saying this. I'd have liked to have seen Shaq play in an era when he had more competition, that's all. Robinson, Hakeem, Ewing, Moses, Parish, Kareem, hell.. even Ralph Sampson, Tom Chambers or Brad Daughetry (Daughetry was before Shaq btw)... there was a real golden age of centers in the late 80s and early 90s... Shaq just missed it unfortunately... did you get as tired as I did of seeing him back his butt up to the rim and throw down on either an elderly European or an undersized tweener trying to play the 5 spot? To me, I don't think he could've gotten away with that stuff in a different era. Maybe it's just me and my rose-colored nostalgic glasses, but I see a pretty big talent gap between then and now at the 5.
