Prime Shaquille O’Neal was insane. How is he not in the GOAT conversation?

[Jalether]

It’s cool to see Tim get love.

I’ll just say that it’s odd how perceptions change over time.

Olajuwon was great. I think he’s getting too much of a boost in recent years though. Somehow the bar of sustained greatness over time never applies to him. Certainly when people obsess over playoff runs and championships. Because honestly, Dream never had that kind of career. He was basically .500 in his playoff career.

That's a fair point regarding longevity and playoffs consistency however both of Hakeem's ring have more weight than shaq's for obvious reasons the same way you can't weigh KD's two rings equally against Dirk's only one


Also Hakeem is just a better player overall, significantly better defender, better rebounder, more skilled offensively. The only thing shaq has over him his pure brute force/bully ball

 

[Jalether]

Moses Malone too, he needs to be in the convo for best centers

That's another underrated legend, You can chuck it to a generational thing but I have seen centers like Ewing (no disrespect) get more love than him, it's as if He never existed.

 

[Buckeye Fever]

His stateline in that one Finals vs the Nets is still insane.

I hadn't realized the stats he put up, til @Ed MOTHERfukkING G posted them in a thread either on here or sohh

 

[Erratic415]

Moses Malone too, he needs to be in the convo for best centers

I know a lot of old heads that absolutely revere Moses Malone when it comes to basketball….

He’s less talked about than any most other great players. 3 time MVP, (back to back), finals MVP, went straight from high school to the ABA.

I guess part of it is because his game wasn’t aesthetic. He played on so many times, and wasn’t much in the public eye after his career ended.

I’ve also heard people say his offensive rebounding stats was somewhat inflated because he was so bad at layups that he would have to rebound his own misses lol

But he was the best player in the league for some time, and was the MVP when Dr. J finally got his nba finals ring. Philly had been going against centers like Kareem and peak Walton, and needed a top center