Shaquille O'Neal vs Wilt Chamberlain | Who is the Most DOMINANT?

[LakersLegacy]

I didn’t get to watch Wilt

Logically 100 point beats 61 points or whatever’s Shaw’s career high is

Wilt didn’t have Kobe and Wade

Wilt averaged 48 minutes a game for a season right. So Wilt was in better shape

No hate on Shaq. Will always appreciate him.

Wilt seems like a more complete player. I’m pretty sure if Wilt picked his team back then and we’re on the Celtics he would have destroyed everyone. Shaq picked the Lakers and destroyed for 3 seasons with Kobe. As long as we don’t think about the Portland series where Kobe had more blocks, rebounds points, and assists (the real NBA Finals back when whoever came out the West would be the champion) or the Kings series. Shaq absolutely dominated the Pacers, 76ers and Nets in the Finals though. Kobe was most dominant against the Spurs in 2001

My vote goes for Wilt because of his legend. I saw Shaq live often

[SkyHookFTW]

When I judge players I look at the level of competition they faced in their day. Will was dominant in his time as there were few players his size and skillset. Other than Russell, Nate Thurmond and Walt Bellamy there were not many dominant centres.

Shaq played against a number of great centers in his time. Hakeem, Robinson, Ewing, Mourning, Mutombo, Big Z, Camby, Yao, Sabonis, Divac, Wallace and Duncan.

But to average 50 a season in any era is mind-boggling. For that season alone I will give the edge to Wilt.

Russell, Thurmond, Bellamy, Kareem, Reed...there were very good centers back then, with Kareem and Russell being in GOAT conversations.

[70sFan]

When I judge players I look at the level of competition they faced in their day. Will was dominant in his time as there were few players his size and skillset. Other than Russell, Nate Thurmond and Walt Bellamy there were not many dominant centres.

Shaq played against a number of great centers in his time. Hakeem, Robinson, Ewing, Mourning, Mutombo, Big Z, Camby, Yao, Sabonis, Divac, Wallace and Duncan.

But to average 50 a season in any era is mind-boggling. For that season alone I will give the edge to Wilt.

You only missed Willis Reed, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Zelmo Beaty, Bob Lanier, Wes Unseld, Clyde Lovellette, Dave Cowens... The center position was extremely stacked during Wilt's career.

[70sFan]

Shaq isn't a mental midget.

That's good, cause we're comparing him to Wilt Chmaberlain. No mental midget would be able to compete against him.

[70sFan]

I'm a huge Shaq fan and think he's the better player, but the question is "most dominant." Wilt averaged 30/22 for his career. The answer to this question is Wilt.

You can't compare raw numbers across decades though. Shaq himself would average more than 15 rpg in Wilt's era for example.

[Pantsman]

Wilt. It’s not even close. But if you put them in the same era I’m sure it would be shaq.

[HEAT33]

With 20k under Wilts belt, even if he loses, he still wins.
I bet his DNA might be in a lot of NBA players

[Kvothe22]

I cannot take seriously basketball in 60s and 70s.

Game developed and improved a ton when Shaq played, so Shaq.

[MaxZaslofskyJr]

Wilt.

[JN61]

Statistically, nobody's ever going to touch Wilt. It's probably him, Ruth and Gretzky in the history of US sports. From a physical standpoint, Wilt was obviously a complete and total freak, but I don't think the human race has ever produced a specimen like Shaq. He didn't have the track athleticism that Wilt did, but in terms of pure, raw power, nothing I've seen compares to him, before or since. Plus, despite having a very solid little post game of his own, he wasn't settling for fadeaway bankshots because he wanted to prove how skilled he was. He was dunking it in your face at each and every opportunity.

I've tracked 30 Shaq games from 1999/00 season.

17% of Shaq's post shots were fadeaways.
13% of Shaq's post shots were one handed push shots.
34% of Shaq's post shots were hooks.

So no, Shaq didn't try to dunk in your face at each and every opportunity. More than a half of Shaq's low post attempts were away from the basket.

I remember seeing statistic of Westbrook's when he was with the Rockets and he had the most FGM from the basket since Shaq or something like that. So he (Shaq) indeed had a lot of baskets at the rim but we aren't speaking absurd of amounts for an actual low post scorer when a point guard can rival it. Per BBallref Shaq had in those good Lakers years 19% of his FGM dunks 48% were 0-3 ft FGA. Westbrook was 42% with almost 10 attempts per game (4% dunks). Shaq had Almost 9 FGA per game at that distance. Westbrook was 64% at that distance that year and Shaq was almost 76% during his Lakers ''prime''.

[Buckets22]

Wilt, if they didn't put anti-Wilt rules in place the league would've been a BBQ chicken.

[JN61]

Wilt, if they didn't put anti-Wilt rules in place the league would've been a BBQ chicken.

I want to comment on that because that is the phrase that Shaq uses often.

He usually refers that to physical dominance. Just push them away with force. The main thing (as you mention) here are the rules. Shaq could play the BBQ chicken because league allowed him. You are able to get away with a murder as an offensive player in low post these days. However this wasn't the case in Wilt's era but basically ALL plays these days that are backing down defender would have considered offensive fouls back then. You had to have finesse game that Wilt had like no other low post scorer. Allow Wilt to use his actual physicality? It's over people... Wilt was stronger than Shaq and way quicker. Shaq would have been able to guard Wilt's backing down him with sheer mass but Wilt would have gotten easily his while easily able to defend Shaq. Anyway I don't think this matchup is purely 1v1 but more of team concept. Wilt is basically better on all categories individually than Shaq so add him to right team and you have the winner. It's not really hit on Shaq either since he had several years of defensive and offensive dominance. Wilt is just something else.

[Grumpy Heat Fan]

nobody gonna post that GIF of old Wilt shaking prime Shaq's hand and making Shaq look small?

[70sFan]

Wilt. It’s not even close. But if you put them in the same era I’m sure it would be shaq.

What's the logic behind it?

[70sFan]

I cannot take seriously basketball in 60s and 70s.

Game developed and improved a ton when Shaq played, so Shaq.

What makes Sgaq more developed and improved basketball player than Wilt?

[Haldi]

The one that played against actual athletes, and not janitors, part time players and skinny twigs smoking on the benches.

This.. Prime Shaq wouldve made Wilt look like every other center that Shaq faced against. I’m too young to have been around for Wilt, but I was in my early 20s when Shaq was stomping on the NBA, and theres absolutely nothing about Wilt that says he would’ve done better than the countless other 7 footers that tried to put a body on a Shaq and instead got backed up 5 feet and dunked on.
I’m am also a huge hater of Shaq and am of the opinion that it was the worst low skilled basketball ive ever seen from a superstar and that most of that was offensive fouling to the point that Shaq should’ve played like 20 minutes a game, but my opinion in this doesn’t matter. What matters is the NBA called it legal and it didn’t matter who you were, if you tried to stop Shaq, you got dunked on in the nastiest of ways, and Wilt wouldve been no different than Duncan or any of the other great bigs at the time. They all got dominated by Shaq ( and yes, I remember 99 and 2003 very well too ).

Other than Shaq himself, I don’t see any other NBA player thats ever played being able to stop him.

[JN61]

The one that played against actual athletes, and not janitors, part time players and skinny twigs smoking on the benches.

This.. Prime Shaq wouldve made Wilt look like every other center that Shaq faced against. I’m too young to have been around for Wilt, but I was in my early 20s when Shaq was stomping on the NBA, and theres absolutely nothing about Wilt that says he would’ve done better than the countless other 7 footers that tried to put a body on a Shaq and instead got backed up 5 feet and dunked on.
I’m am also a huge hater of Shaq and am of the opinion that it was the worst low skilled basketball ive ever seen from a superstar and that most of that was offensive fouling to the point that Shaq should’ve played like 20 minutes a game, but my opinion in this doesn’t matter. What matters is the NBA called it legal and it didn’t matter who you were, if you tried to stop Shaq, you got dunked on in the nastiest of ways, and Wilt wouldve been no different than Duncan or any of the other great bigs at the time. They all got dominated by Shaq ( and yes, I remember 99 and 2003 very well too ).

Other than Shaq himself, I don’t see any other NBA player thats ever played being able to stop him.

Except Wilt was more athletic than any other center Shaq faced (except maybe Howard and Howard is 4 inches shorter and like 30 pounds lighter, even old man Wilt dwarfed Shaq). Wilt was maybe 10-15 pounds lighter than Shaq, while having superior strength and quickness due to him being in excellent shape while for Shaq good 15-20 pounds was just overweight fat as can be seen from their prime pictures.

When you bring up Duncan you miss the point that of course Shaq dominated him physically, not really statistically because Duncan defended him really well in all Spurs - Lakers series. Resulting Shaq have really poor performances to his standards always in the playoffs vs Spurs. Averaging significantly bellow his career averages on FG% and scoring usually 20-22 PPG with just one decent serie vs Spurs. Kobe won them series vs Spurs. Not Shaq.

When we compare Wilt to Duncan you have at very minimum as good of defender in Wilt, while having 50-60 pounds on Duncan in terms of weight so Shaq just can't dominate Wilt physically like that.

See the shoulder level. Wilt just dwarfs Shaq.

[70sFan]

The one that played against actual athletes, and not janitors, part time players and skinny twigs smoking on the benches.

This.. Prime Shaq wouldve made Wilt look like every other center that Shaq faced against. I’m too young to have been around for Wilt, but I was in my early 20s when Shaq was stomping on the NBA, and theres absolutely nothing about Wilt that says he would’ve done better than the countless other 7 footers that tried to put a body on a Shaq and instead got backed up 5 feet and dunked on.
I’m am also a huge hater of Shaq and am of the opinion that it was the worst low skilled basketball ive ever seen from a superstar and that most of that was offensive fouling to the point that Shaq should’ve played like 20 minutes a game, but my opinion in this doesn’t matter. What matters is the NBA called it legal and it didn’t matter who you were, if you tried to stop Shaq, you got dunked on in the nastiest of ways, and Wilt wouldve been no different than Duncan or any of the other great bigs at the time. They all got dominated by Shaq ( and yes, I remember 99 and 2003 very well too ).

Other than Shaq himself, I don’t see any other NBA player thats ever played being able to stop him.

For someone who watched games during that period, you seem to have fuzzy memory about Shaq's game. He wasn't that unstoppable one on one, the biggest threat was his off-ball game. Wilt was more athletic and stronger than anyone Shaq faced at his peak, he was also big enough to bother him with the length and mass.

Sure, nobody could stop peak Shaq but Wilt is certainly one of the best candidates to do that with his enormous combination of size, strength and athleticism. Comparing him to countless of 7 footers that Shaq faced isn't fair, cause no 7 footer had that combination of features Wilt possessed in his prime.

[Pantsman]

Wilt. It’s not even close. But if you put them in the same era I’m sure it would be shaq.

What's the logic behind it?

Logic behind what?

Wilt was a lot more dominate than shaq because the league never seen anything like wilt before. Shaq never averaged 50ppg or over 20 rebounds that just insanity. Easily the most dominate of all time. But you put wilt and shaq in the same era I don’t think wilt wouldn’t have been better. Wilt was basically the Westbrook of the 60s he cared a lot more about stats than winning. Shaq was the most physically dominating presence ever. And if he played in the 60s I have little doubt he wouldn’t have averaged 50 and 20 also.

[70sFan]

Wilt. It’s not even close. But if you put them in the same era I’m sure it would be shaq.

What's the logic behind it?

Logic behind what?

Wilt was a lot more dominate than shaq because the league never seen anything like wilt before. Shaq never averaged 50ppg or over 20 rebounds that just insanity. Easily the most dominate of all time. But you put wilt and shaq in the same era I don’t think wilt wouldn’t have been better. Wilt was basically the Westbrook of the 60s he cared a lot more about stats than winning. Shaq was the most physically dominating presence ever. And if he played in the 60s I have little doubt he wouldn’t have averaged 50 and 20 also.

So you define dominance by raw stats?

I'm pretty sure that Wilt would average similar numbers to Shaq in the 1990s or 2000s.