NO-KG-AI wrote:I'm aware of all that, I just think it's a bogus argument to say that Shaq's dominance wasn't impressive, it's not like Hakeem played D-Rob and Ewing every night.
Hakeem didn't play D-Rob and Ewing every night, but he played great centers/power forwards fairly often during his championship years:
- prime D-Rob
- prime Ewing
- young Shaq
- prime Mutombo
- young Alonzo
- prime Barkley
- prime Malone
- prime Kemp
- young Webber
As well as other less illustrious bigs:
- Daugherty
- Smits
Shaq played the following during his championship run:
- prime Duncan
- prime Webber
- Ben Wallace, who had recently broken out
- Kenyon Martin (seriously?)
Beyond that, his best competition were Arvydas Sabonis, David Robinson, and Dikembe Mutombo, who would be 37, 37, and 36, respectively, by the end of his championship run. Guys like Malone, Olajuwon, and Ewing were pushing 40. Alonzo was trying to repair his kidney, and Kemp had eaten himself out of the league. Yao and Amare would begin to emerge as promising rookies.
I don't see how the competition was even close. Even Daugherty and Smits would be the best true centers in the league after Shaq in that era.