Come on dont be ignorant. Duncan plays the 4 because of Robinson. if he is not there, Duncan plays the 5 C Webb has been a PF for most of his carrer, except when he was forced to play C. Now that he has Divac, there is no need for him to play a position that he is not suited for. While shaq may be dominante, he is not a good basketball player. His footwork is average, he has 3 or 4 moves, most of them depend on him charging to create seperation. I will say this, if shaq was the size of C Webb he would probably be a bench warmer. Seriously, He would be worse the Otis thorpe was in his prime. Just because someone has a distinct advantage over everyone in the league because of his size and athletacism, does not make him a good basketball player. Harold Minor was an amazing athlete, it took him places
Oh come on now. CWebb never plays center in his career in Kings, Bullets, Warriors and Michigan (Howard plays center). Duncan had Robinson to play center. Duncan is a unique defensive talent. He has the shooting range and fast enough to cover the 4 and strong enough to cover the 5. Why wouldnt he love to play the 4 when he can shoot and power over them.
So explain to us IGNORANT kids what is the difference between Shaq and Wilt? Guess Wilt wasn't a good player either.
well first off no one should use the "if shaq was smaller" argument b/c then why don't we just use a "if hakeem was slower or less agile or couldn't jump so quick" argument. you've got what skills and body type you've got and that's what makes an athlete plain and simple. bigger, faster, stronger. before i analyze i will say i don't like shaq and hakeem is my favorite player ever, but i still think i'm being objective when i give hakeem the edge. on offense: you have to pay more attention to shaq than you did hakeem simply b/c you have to pay attention when he doesn't have the ball too. your concentration wavers for a second, shaq's 350 pound ass had you pinned under the rim, he catches it, and dunks it. from what i remember, hakeem was fairly docile before he got the ball. however, once they both get the ball, it's all the same. you either pay dearly for single-teaming them or you double and force them to pass to their 3 pt shooting role players. shaq runs you over, hakeem spun all around you. both extremely effective. hakeem obviously had the free throw advantage which meant he wasn't a liability in the 4th quarter as shaq has often been. shaq doesn't even take the big shots in the 4th, whereas hakeem did. overall, b/c of his fg% advantage and the fact you simply can't relax against him, i give shaq a tiny advantage on offense (even though i don't want to). now to defense. this is where hakeem takes the overall lead. shaq is no doubt a presence on defense simply because of his size but he is no hakeem. hakeem is the all time shot block leader and i think if you go year by year shaq is never even within .5 blocks per game of hakeem (i could be remembering incorrectly). hakeem was agile, with amazing timing, and an amazingly fast jump and second jump. nothing like him in the paint. and then there's steals. hakeem is 6th all time and no other center is in the top 10 (i'm not sure if another center is even close). he's the only guy to have 2000 blks and stls. unbelievable. either hakeem is the greatest defender ever or russell is and hakeem is a close second. shaq does not have the quickness or hand speed to match hakeem in steals. and finally there's the pnr. shaq is notoriously bad at playing the pnr. teams purposely go right at him on the pnr to take advantage of this. you couldn't do that to hakeem. just ask starks. i think he tried to use a pick in game 6, then hakeem played the pick and then was still quick enough to catch up to starks and get a finger on the ball. a freakin center reacted to and caught up to a guard. that's amazing. hakeem's defensive advantage to me more than makes up for whatever offensive advantage shaq has and thus i rate hakeem higher. however, to say it's not up for debate or either is clearly better is foolish to me. and i didn't even mention the two greatest blocks in nba history, the kj and rod strickland blocks.
C-Webb did play center for the Warriors and that is why he wanted out, he didn't like playing against bigger players. As for Duncan, well he wants to play PF so be it. Guess he'd rather watch the Admiral get destroyed than himself. And why did Dream play Center? He had all the skills of Duncan, why didn't he slide over and play PF and not be matched up against the big centers? Answer: Because he was a man. He liked challenges. Again no offense to C-webb or Duncan but the 1st series I see them take Shaq then I will gain more respect for them. Either way both of these guys are big enough to play center in today's NBA, or at least big enough to D up against Shaq. They both let others do the work for them.
It's really not that complex for me. I don't feel like pulling all the stats, but here it is: In their primes, neither center could be stopped offensively. Everyone focuses so much on Shaq's offense, but seem to forget that NO ONE could check Dream either. Even if you say Shaq has an advantage offensively (which is debatable because Dream could score in a variety of ways), then the advantage would be slight. Dream's advantage defensively is HUGE. #1 all time in blocks, top 10 in steals. How can you even debate that. Even though Shaq is bigger than everyone else, he has never led the league in rebounds (correct me if I'm wrong). An undersized Dream has. I can give Dream the ball in the last seconds to win a game for me or protect a narrow lead. I can not do this with Shaq (as a matter of fact, I might have to take him out of the game). Shaq has played his entire career (except for his first season) on teams loaded with talent. Yet, he was swept out of the playoffs every year except for the past 3 seasons. EVERY YEAR. Dream played with subpar talent for the majority of his career. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but the only time Dream got swept was the year Seattle kicked our butts (and our guards were hurt). Not to mention we made the playoffs every year (in a tougher league) except for the year of Bill Cartwright. Shaq won his championships at a time where his position is the weakest that it's ever been (debatable). Dream went through Ewing, Robinson and Shaq to get his titles. What more can you ask a man to do besides go through THE BEST AT HIS POSITION in route to a title? That dosen't even include the other hall of fame players in their primes that Dream went through (Stockton & Malone twice, Barkley & KJ twice, Rodman). Dream swept Shaq.....WITH A LESSER TEAM.
Horry who has played with both players on championship teams and shaq himself have said Hakeem is better. Case Closed.
Horry has always said he would like to come back to Houston and finish his career. We know his heart is still with the Rockets. He is also a pretty damn good father to.
Shaq was in his prime. If he wasn't, then how did he make it to the finals and how did he score that many points per game?
