Shaquille O'Neal has been arguably the NBA's greatest player and it's a sad day to see a legend of basketball retire
Shaquille O'Neal recently announced his retirement from NBA basketball at the age of 39 and while he's a shoe-in for the NBA's Hall of Fame, he should also be looked at more closely as the greatest player ever.
O'Neal retires with the following credentials:
Four time NBA Champion (2000, 2001, 2002, 2006)
Three time NBA Finals MVP (2000–2002)
NBA Most Valuable Player (2000)
NBA Rookie of the Year (1993)
Fifteen time NBA All-Star (1993–1998, 2000–2007, 2009)
Two time NBA scoring champion (1995, 2000)
Eight time All-NBA First Team (1998, 2000–2006)
Two time All-NBA Second Team (1995, 1999)
Four time All-NBA Third Team (1994, 1996–1997, 2009)
Three time All-Defensive Second Team (2000–2001, 2003)
Popular opinion holds Michael Jordan as the greatest player ever and the position is certainly a respectable one given Jordan's own credentials. Both players, at the peaks of their powers, were unstoppable offensively.
However basketball is as much about defense as it is about offense and the big men down low in the block interfere with the opposing offense more than guard's ever will. O'Neal's presence on the defensive end of the court forced teams to modify their whole offensive scheme as Shaq was in the head of every guard at the start of every offensive set.
Jordan, in contrast, was a lockdown defender on the man he was guarding but Jordan was typically stationed out on the arc and his defensive skills did not always factor into his team's defense - Jordan could be avoided.
O'Neal's presence near the rim was an incredibly pervasive reality that opposing teams had to deal with on every possession.
Shaq forced teams to shoot from the outside often, shots that are a lower percentage, and when guards did drive to the rim against O'Neal they were often forced to modify their shots by adding a higher arc, a modification that would have affected their shooting percentages as well. Those effects would not always show up on Shaq's stats for a game but they were still a huge part of what he brought to his team.
The biggest criticism against Shaq is that he was not reliable from the free throw line and that was a problem in the dying minutes of close games. If you are talking about converting in the clutch then Jordan is definitely the man to go with although 'shove-and-shoot' was a bigger beneficiary of officiating than even the 2002 Los Angeles Lakers.
However with Shaq's scoring and his curbing the other team's offensive production for say the first 45 minutes of action you have to wonder how many games in his career did not come down to free throws because O'Neal had already given his team a double digit lead.
The free throw problem was something for the coach to rectify and if Shaq was holding the ball down the stretch in a tight ball game it was a strategical error.
However I would also seriously question whether the hack-a-Shaq philosophy ever was a smart approach.
Shaq, despite his low free throw percentage, would still hit them about 50% of the time. Teams fail to convert their possessions more often than that in the NBA and from that point of view the hack-a-Shaq strategy was probably a zero-net gain/loss when averaged over the long term - except for the team committing the fouls saw all their players approach disqualification.
O'Neal retires fifth all-time in points scored, 12th in rebounds, and 7th in blocks. He's a lock for the Hall of Fame and hopefully he gets his fair shake in basketball history as a player in the debate for greatest ever.
The 7'1" 325lb phenom from Newark could mess up entire teams just by running the court and there are few players who could be described in that way.
