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The most dominant big man of all time, a legendary Laker, will have his jersey retired in a couple days. It is well deserved.

Big men are hard to come by in today's NBA, so Prime Shaq in LA would destroy today's league hands down. He would put up much bigger numbers than he did, and no one would be able to stop him.

I just wish the Lakers clinched a playoff birth before the retirement of Shaq's jersey, that way more attention would be faced on the legendary big man and less on the current Laker team.

Dwight Howard has a long way to go if he wants to reach Shaq's level.

The Howard deal has made me respect Shaq more...

When Shaq came to LA, he wanted one thing and one thing only, to win championships. He had a mindset that he was going to do it and nobody, no team, not even his own was going to stand in his way.

Everybody views greatness differently...
Magic wanted to win every game.
Bird wanted to beat every opponent
Kareem wanted to excel at every aspect of the game
MJ wanted to beat every opponent but also be the best player in the game ever.
Wilt wanted to be the biggest star in the game.

Shaq and Kobe wanted to win championships...
Shaq didn't care about the other teams or the regular season, he just wanted to be in a position to win rings every year and if his team got him close, he'd carry them.
He may not have been thought of as a defensive specialist, but how many times do you remember him getting dunked on? I don't remember him ever getting posterized as a Laker.
Shaq may not have focused on rebounds, but if we needed one, he'd get it.
Shaq was a jokester and liked having fun, but his jokes seemed to come from a place of arrogance in a way... Like he was letting you into his kingdom for a while to share a laugh. Like he didn't really care if you laughed or not, because it was his world and you were just looking in through the window. Never was there any feeling of insecurity or weakness.

Dwight's more like Wilt... He just wants to be a huge star and liked by as many people as possible.
Dwight jokes but it's more self-deprecating and seems to be an effort to endear himself to those watching. Kind of like the class clown that has nothing else going for him. He seems to need to connect with those around him in a way that doesn't inspire the same confidence.

Shaq's arrogance eventually got him in trouble as his physical gifts started to diminish... He didn't see any need to compromise. And even up to his retirement, he didn't really try to fit in any better with any team he was on... He still thought they were his teams.

But I miss the big fella.

Well deserved. The most dominant force of all time. Congrats Superman!

One thing I noticed about Shaq....he barely ever got dunked on.

He truly changed the game, and he was a nightmare for opposing centers.

When the Lakers won those 3 rings in a row in the early 00's, Shaq won the Finals MVP in all the 3 years, not to mention 1 regular season MVP. Many would say it was Shaq's team, and the big man had a lot to do with Kobe's early success.

If Kobe and Shaq stayed longer, who knows how many more rings they could have won.

can't wait for this

itd been more funny if it was on April 1 instead

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ3FXLyNFew[/youtube]

Awesome. Richly deserved.

moonpie wrote:[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ3FXLyNFew[/youtube]

I can't believe Dikembe still went for the block on the last but one shot!

Sedale Threatt wrote:Awesome. Richly deserved.

I will be watching this game in my Shaq jersey....Dwight's struggles just make me realize how much Shaq brought to the table as a Laker

Kobe System wrote:Well deserved. The most dominant force of all time. Congrats Superman!

Look at Clifford robinson's face lol. We dominated Portland in the playoffs for YEARS literally. For those who don't know look up playoff history both pre Jackson and during.

Shaq I also miss his dominance. I called it unfair when people criticized Dwight for calling himself superman but how true it is that the only true superman was shaq.
I sorely miss shaq now after watching this truly talented team lose this year on Dwight's misballhandling and tip toeing around the basket.


If there's a one guy in the paint? Dwight sometimes can't handle it.
Shaq? You recall the scene from matrix 2 where neo blows up a hundred agent smiths off of himself ? That is shaq.

I never understood the Shaq was not a great defender part. He just never tried on the pick and roll and therefore every team ran a high PnR with his man but he was a terrific low post defender and good luck getting in the lane when he was around, he'd smack that **** right back in your face.

Wish Dr Buss was around for this one.

good for us, good for LA, good for the Lakers, and good for big diesel

It'll be great to see - congrats Shaq!

SlavaMedvedenko wrote:I never understood the Shaq was not a great defender part. He just never tried on the pick and roll...

Well, that's a pretty important facet of being a good defensive big man. A lot of it came down to the fact he was just a big, big dude, but he also clearly didn't exert max effort all the time. It was a legitimate flaw.

Sedale Threatt wrote:

SlavaMedvedenko wrote:I never understood the Shaq was not a great defender part. He just never tried on the pick and roll...

Well, that's a pretty important facet of being a good defensive big man. A lot of it came down to the fact he was just a big, big dude, but he also clearly didn't exert max effort all the time. It was a legitimate flaw.

Exactly! We got swept by the Jizz two years in a row because we couldn't stop their PnR... Once Kobe got near his prime their PnR no longer made the difference.

omaro34 wrote:When the Lakers won those 3 rings in a row in the early 00's, Shaq won the Finals MVP in all the 3 years, not to mention 1 regular season MVP. Many would say it was Shaq's team, and the big man had a lot to do with Kobe's early success.

I think everyone would say that.

Congrats to the Diesel. Most physically dominant player I've ever seen. His post game, both passing and finishing, were elite.

Tasp wrote:

omaro34 wrote:When the Lakers won those 3 rings in a row in the early 00's, Shaq won the Finals MVP in all the 3 years, not to mention 1 regular season MVP. Many would say it was Shaq's team, and the big man had a lot to do with Kobe's early success.

I think everyone would say that.

Congrats to the Diesel. Most physically dominant player I've ever seen. His post game, both passing and finishing, were elite.

Shaq is the most physically imposing player I've seen also but if anybody were to suggest LeBron and Wilt are/were equally imposing I wouldn't argue with them.

Oh, Bron and Wilt are up there. All top three arguably. But, personally, there was something about Shaq overpowering players, just straight muscling them. Never seen anything like that.