NBA

Il Drago said:

I love Shaq. He was one of my favorite players, along with MJ, when i was a kid. But come on. When we're talking about the best C of 90s it's Hakeem.

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Shaq knows this, he's just playing around and he loves to keep saying that he was an elite player because he gets overlooked nowadays.

brehme1989 said:

Shaq knows this, he's just playing around and he loves to keep saying that he was an elite player because he gets overlooked nowadays.

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Just for the record shaq was an elite player despite his shenanigans to many ex players on the record saying he was the most dominant they ever faced.
Hakeem should get the best C of the 90s though but thats mainly a timing question.

Adriano@10 said:

Just for the record shaq was an elite player despite his shenanigans to many ex players on the record saying he was the most dominant they ever faced.
Hakeem should get the best C of the 90s though but thats mainly a timing question.

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Well, there are arguably only a handful of players that possessed what we call the "fear factor". Shaq is one of those.

People were scared of facing Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Shaquille O'Neal, Wilt Chamberlain, Larry Bird, Dominique Wilkins, Charles Barkley and Moses Malone are probably the 'Big 8'. As in literally scared shitless, on both ends. I think only Kobe gets anywhere close here from more recent guys, but he's not on that level, it just gets highlighted more because there weren't many others with this mentality during his prime.
There are players that also possessed a fear factor for other reasons, because they could hurt you. Such as Bill Laimbeer, Dennis Rodman, Ron Artest, Karl Malone, Charles Oakley, Rick Mahorn, Darryl Dawkins, Ben Wallace etc. Not the same thing. It's one thing to want to be careful not to get hit by an elbow or being thrown down when you try to reach the hoop and another to have to be at 110% at all times on both ends.

The first group of guys had what we call 'killer instict' and pure dominance. You didn't want to get in the way when they turned it on. And it's also why the best duels are between such guys. Go back and check matchups from the prime of MJ vs Bird, MJ vs Nique (MJ says he was his toughest rival), MJ vs Barkley, Bird vs Nique, Bird vs Barkley, Nique vs Barkley. Unfortunately not much can be found from the Russell vs Wilt matchups and Moses was in a league of his own, but he did get some time with the other guys. But that was always the best television for the NBA. And the Lakers vs Celtics rivalry obviously, which highlighted the Bird vs Magic duels, but you also had 5-6 other great players around them on top of that. Jordan, Barkley and Nique were effectively playing by themselves for a big chunk of their careers and had to be at 120% to even come close to overcoming a playoff matchup. Against the Celtics, the Pistons, the Cavs etc... Not an easy task.

People were afraid of Hakeem in a sporting way, he'd block you, he'd shake you, he'd torment you, but he wasn't a wild player. Patrick Ewing for example was probably a scarier matchup for centers, but Hakeem would dominate everyone, whereas Patrick had weak links to be exploited by other great bigs.

rfU said:

Jokic nearly passed it last night: 28/9/9 FG:11/17 3pt:3/3, didn't even play the 4th quarter.

Top 3-4 player in the NBA, no question.

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Jokić is top5 mos def, while Dončić is still like 3 seasons away (or a club away) to be an MVP candidate

Il Drago said:

I love Shaq. He was one of my favorite players, along with MJ, when i was a kid. But come on. When we're talking about the best C of 90s it's Hakeem.

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In this segment he was kinda jokingly forcing his former teammate Dennis Scott to put him on the list. But yea Shaq would be up there for the next decade. Besides that he dealt with some issues during his career as well:

Lmao they changed the name Staples Centre to Crypto.com

Brilliant game by Curry again

wera said:

Brilliant game by Curry again

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warriors are scary considering wiseman and klay are still out.....
Fact that they puled away with curry on the bench and that they locked down durant in the 2nd half says it all....

If i was in the nets org i would start to try anything to get kyrie back

Lmao did you guys see Isaiah going absolute bonkers to Bron?

Yeah and LeBron really did foul intentionally. Fuck him and fuck the Lakers and their superteam

brakbrak said:

Lmao did you guys see Isaiah going absolute bonkers to Bron?

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I don't blame him, looked intentional although I doubt Bron meant for him to leak like that, but what was Isaiah going to do Bron exactly Le90s would've made his other eye leak then folded him .

Lebron cowarded his way out of the incident.

Don't mess with Beef Stew.

brehme1989 said:

Lebron cowarded his way out of the incident.

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Refused to speak on the press as well lol

wera said:

Yeah and LeBron really did foul intentionally. Fuck him and fuck the Lakers and their superteam

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Superteam Few years ago? Sure. But now they're just a bunch of veterans who are desperate for a ring. These Lakers remind me a bit of 2003/04 Lakers when Payton and Malone joined forces with Kobe and Shaq in LA. That team was one of the most hyped ever but in the finals they lost to Pistons in 5. Sadly for LeBron they won't even go that far.

Yeah, it's more of a "superfriends".

Only thing you can fault LeBron for is playing GM and building this team, it's massively back firing on him and lo and behold Vogel will be scapegoated.

And AD has been poor this season.

I mean yeah, I'm on the same side of the argument, I don't believe they are a superteam. Even if they win a ring this season, this is still a sad bunch of players, an injured, old Lebron, an on and off Melo and AD who is taking too many jumpers instead of using his height.

Also their coach is known for defence and their defence is appalling. Not even AD can fix that.

Yeah not sue what bron was thinking when assembling that team, i kid of get Melo so you wanna win a ring with your boy i get that and melo off the bench is still a good player. But how they went out there and did not get any great defenders I ll never understand. ALso get some fucken youth Ad is injury prone Lebron at this point also kind off is injury prone and with this team and those two out for longer stretches you ll have a hard time even making the playoffs.

(yes they d probably still make the play ins and win there if Lebron is fit)

LeBron has the most assists and shots scored amongst any baller ever. Having an asset like that is a big thing.

But this Lakers team is a sad, sad affair.

Amazing how one rule change broke Harden. From "better scorer than Kobe" to a turnover machine.