TonyMontana wrote:
Joke ..........
I dont know where in my post I was telling a joke , but Im sure since you know so much about basketball and you think Horace Grant is ancient , maybe you were too young to even watch Grant play when he won his titles with Chicago or even players like Shaw, Rice , etc .
Horace Grant won titles with the Bulls and the Lakers .
Oh and lets not forget John Salley won rings with Pistons and Lakers . Horry with the Rockets , Lakers , and Spurs .
Maybe even Ron Harper who won titles with the Bulls and the Lakers .
If Shaq was the main reason for the titles , then why wasnt he able to get it in Orlando or even before Kobe came to LA ?
Also if you were able to see the Miami Finals , why was Wade the Finals MVP and not Shaq , why was Zo on the court most of the series and not Shaq .
The credit never falls on one player specially in a game thats played with 5 players on one team and one court , yet these players which include Kobe and Wade and supporting cast HELPED Shaq in his achievements to get to titles .
Not just Shaq .
Sorry but you seems to not understand something, you wrote:
Honestly not to start a pissing match and I could really care less as to who did what , but I would give more props to Kobe and the entire team than I would to Shaq .
Shaw , Horry , Grant , Fish etc .
You are clearly writing about Horace Grant when he played in LA Lakers ( 2000-2001 season ) and he was ancient back then, nice role player but not a game changer like Shaq. You also mentioning John Salley? Please dont tell me you are giving more credit to the 1.6 ppg 0.6 rpg ( his stats from 1999-2000 season ) over Shaq too
. It also shows how incredibly dominat O'Neal was when spider was his only backup. You can say the same about Horry, Fisher and Shaw too, nice role players but not importent as 25-30 ( sometimes 40 ) ppg and 13-20 type of player. In essence role players HELPS you win championships, Shaq-like players WINS you championships you understand the difference? Of course I am not saying that role players dont deserve any credit for championships, they deserve it no doubt about it but Shaq-like or Kobe-like type of players should get the most of it, because they are the game changers and opponent defence is geared against them ( remember how Shaq was defended in playoffs?, opposite team always held a team meeting around him ) Miami Heat championship was a different type of banana. Shaq at this stage of his carrer was only a sidekick to Wade, so its Dwyane who rightfully gets the most props for it. Shaq help Wade by being double teamed ( you are also not correct by saing that Zo played more against Dallas than Shaq, go to NBA.com-NBA finals 2006 if you dont believe me ) Shaq also help Miami big time in the previous rounds against Chicago, New Jersey and Detroit by posting huge numbers like 30/20 against the Bulls in game 6 or 28/16/4 to say goodbye to Pistons. So in the essence I see you are more like "team effort" type of guy and I respect that but you have to remember that, the only team lately who won championship without superstar were 2004 Detroit Pistons. And lets make it clear I am not attacking players ( like Grant or Salley ) for what they did in their carrer ( I seen Grant in the Bulls or Orlando and Rice was my fav. player when he played in Miami ) no, I am only trying to say that they were not as important to Lakers success like Shaq, they were important but not in dominant type of player way. You also made a question why Shaq were unable to win anything in Orlando, It's easy he werent ready and dont hit his prime yet so he was spank by better players in their primes like Jordan, Malone, Olajuwon etc.
