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Shaq in a heartbeat. He was a more dominant player.
Now if that comparison was Shaq and Tim Duncan, I'd have to think about it. (I'd probably still go with Shaq, but it would be close.)
Shaq was a beast but David Robinson had great numbers against Shaq...when Robinson had his back injury and Tim Duncan thats when Shaq got the best of D-Rob but both of them were so dominant in the 90s.
I'd give the slightest advantage to shaq. Head to head DR was MUCH better until about 1997 when he got hurt. He was never the same after.
Some of the head to head numbers are skewed because DR played on shaq only half a game, then TD took over, and shaq was playing 35-40 minutes to DRs 20-25 max in a lot of cases.
As a whole I think became so dominant because of the end of the great big men era. Hakeem, Robinson, Malone, Ewing........ Those guys were all coming to an end. I'm curious just how "dominant" shaq would have been if everyone were in their proverbial primes.
Clearly we would never know but it's an interesting thought.
shaq in a heartbeat. even though he was not a good rebounder for his size, many teams had to go big or draft big players to hopefully contain him. look at the sixers when they got mutumbo, and they got to the finals. Mutumbo was the closest person on the planet at that time to even stopping him.
and yes, during shaqs prime, teams double and triple team him, and he still dunked on all 2 or 3 of their faces. shaq was not human.
shaq in a heartbeat. even though he was not a good rebounder for his size, many teams had to go big or draft big players to hopefully contain him. look at the sixers when they got mutumbo, and they got to the finals. Mutumbo was the closest person on the planet at that time to even stopping him.
and yes, during shaqs prime, teams double and triple team him, and he still dunked on all 2 or 3 of their faces. shaq was not human.
is that a statement of shaqs dominance or is it a statement towards the sad state of the bigman talent pool in general? i mean motumbo was fun and all, a very good shotblocker, not the best one on one defender but def not a slouch (no robinson or hakeem).
dont get me wrong, i think shaq is a top player in history BUT i think SOME of that dominance is due to the lack of quality big men.
i also think if shaq could have ever learned an outside shot, and how to hit free throws he very well could have been the best big ever. instead he relied to much on his size advantage and brute power. the fact that he averaged 64 games a season, speaks to his style of play as much as his size. robinson only played 14 seasons due to his military commitments, but he averaged 72 games and that number is a bit skewed because he played only 6 in 96-97, so if you take that season out, he played an average of 78 games per season. (i prorated the 99 lockout for both guys who both played 49 of a possible 50 games) in 5 extra seasons, shaq only played a TOTAL of 220 more games then DR. thats terrible longevity.
now had DR played from 20 yrs old like shaq i wonder where their numbers would stand. id be willing to bet DR would be above shaq in just about every category. shaq averaged more PPG BUT DR played an average of 14 more games per season. throw in an additional 4 seasons (DR was a 24 yr old rookie) at his rookie PPG average, based on his average of 78 games per season and DR would have been VERY close to shaqs final points total. he would also have more then 1200 more rebounds, even without the extra 4 years hes already got more blocks, he has nearly DOUBLE the steals already, and he would have almost identical assists.
considering they averaged the same 34.7 mpg on their careers, and they both tailed off at nearly the same rate around the same age (33-34 yr old) and both ended their career fairly close to same time (37-38) i would say their careers follow the same course. now the big difference is the quality of talent they competed against. shaqs big advantage in the numbers is little more than his 5 extra seasons. he only averaged 2ppg more in his career, and they averaged about the same rpg and apg, DR has a clear advantage in defensive stats like BPG and SPG. robinson also fouled less and turned the ball over less as well as shot a higher % from the line. shaq took 2 more FGs per game and 1 more ft per game.
IMO its about as even as one could ask really so i stick with my original sentiment that shaq is SLIGHTLY above DR, and i base that solely on his 2 more rings. robinson did not have the "sidekick" talent shaq did until duncan came along at the tail end of his career.
is that a statement of shaqs dominance or is it a statement towards the sad state of the bigman talent pool in general? i mean motumbo was fun and all, a very good shotblocker, not the best one on one defender but def not a slouch (no robinson or hakeem).
I dont think there is any person on earth that can stop shaq at his prime, 100 years ago, or even 100 years to the future.
he does suck at rebounding, doesnt have range, poor FT%.
will have to just disagree on that, tim duncan did his fair share of slowing shaq down. there is a whole other thread on the 2 of them. shaq was not ever the unstoppable force he is made out to be. was he dominant? absolutely. was he unbeatable, far from it. he was out played many a game but much older hakeem, DR, and younger tim duncan........
my biggest issue with shaq is his lack of durability. i have stated many times how little he actually played. numbers can be skewed based on that fact alone. you know start out half the season fresh and blowing guys away, then go down and not do anything the 2nd half but dang those numbers look great. there is a huge difference between averaging 25 and 12 for 50 games and averaging 25/12 for 75 games.
here are the head to head stats for duncan vs shaq head to head in shaqs absolute prime, 1999-2003. this is before tims prime fully started to about the beginning/middle MAYBE.
now some people make the argument that tim didnt face shaq on defense, and vise versa. this is just not true. did they play each other every minute of every game? no but they play more than half the game on each other? yes, just go watch film and youll see. and when tim was not on shaq, who was? oh yeah robinson broken self.
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