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

[J_T]

We had a discussion about this here years ago. Wilt won the poll. One dude compared him to Javale McGee.

It wasn't me, but I like the comparison. Not because Wilt = Javale, but it exaggerates the huge gap that would exist between Shaq and Wilt, had the ever met on court. Shaq would be rapping about Wilt before and after every game. Wilt would have been the Javale McGee of the modern era - until Shaq's mom told him to stop bullying poor Wilt.

This doesn't make any sense...

I see that you are the original poster. Makes sense. I actually only now remembered some of your past claims about how great the players from 800 years ago were. Makes sense.

[70sFan]

It wasn't me, but I like the comparison. Not because Wilt = Javale, but it exaggerates the huge gap that would exist between Shaq and Wilt, had the ever met on court. Shaq would be rapping about Wilt before and after every game. Wilt would have been the Javale McGee of the modern era - until Shaq's mom told him to stop bullying poor Wilt.

This doesn't make any sense...

I see that you are the original poster. Makes sense. I actually only now remembered some of your past claims about how great the players from 800 years ago were. Makes sense.

As far as I know, basketball didn't exist 800 years ago.

Are you denying that Wilt was a great player?

[Heat3]

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.

Wilt looks like Shaq’s dad coming to see his high school son play a game. Looks a bit taller than Shaq while in dress shoes. Meanwhile Ewing looks like someone shrunk him. I wish I could have seen Wilt play. Legend gets thrown around a lot. This man was almost Mythical.

[drchaos]

Wilt would be able to Hack a Shaq to victory.

[Jables]

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

Wait I thought Jordan played against plumbers, so who the heck was Shaq playing against back then with no ring to show for it?

WIlt dominated more, it's not really an argument. They had to stop his dominance through the rulebook and he still did whatever he wanted until his 30's, which is unfortunately before the Celtics stacked team fell off, and let's not pretend Shaq could win more if you put all the best players in the league on one team against him.


For Wilt they:

1) widened the lane

2) forbid inbounding over the board

3) stopped people from crossing the FT line during a FT

4) introduced offensive goaltending

Shaq got a rule slightly changed because he sucked at FT's and everyone was hacking him. Not that WIlt can talk in that regard.

[Haldi]

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

Wait I thought Jordan played against plumbers, so who the heck was Shaq playing against back then with no ring to show for it?

WIlt dominated more, it's not really an argument. They had to stop his dominance through the rulebook and he still did whatever he wanted until his 30's, which is unfortunately before the Celtics stacked team fell off, and let's not pretend Shaq could win more if you put all the best players in the league on one team against him.


For Wilt they:

1) widened the lane

2) forbid inbounding over the board

3) stopped people from crossing the FT line during a FT

4) introduced offensive goaltending

Shaq got a rule slightly changed because he sucked at FT's and everyone was hacking him. Not that WIlt can talk in that regard.

3 and 4 we’re gonna be changed regardless of Wilt, cool that Wilt exposed it right away though!!

Shaq also made the NBA have no choice but to do away with the dumb rule that teams couldn’t play zone defense. Shaq has always taken great praise for “making” the NBA change that, but thats Shaq’s ego for you.

Now on the flip side of that, one rule change that just immensly helped Shaq dominate was the no charge zone under the basket to prevent defenders throwing their bodies under the rim for a charge when high flying dunkers were coming in. I’ve never understood why backing down through someone in that same spot also resulted in a “no charge”, this rule should’ve only been used for when players are driving into the lane, maybe the NBA thought it would be too confusing, but they allowed it and Shaq was able to just plow through people if they were deep enough, and he would always seal them deep enough. Most people don’t talk about this when talking about Shaqs dominance but this was HUGE for him, id say the biggest factor as the why those Lakers plowed through the league like they did, imo anyway.

[picko]

I've never seen a player before or since throw their weight around like Shaq did. There is nothing in the footage of Wilt - and there is plenty of footage - that points towards an equal level of physicality. Now of course, the 1990s and 2000s was a more physical era of NBA basketball and that enabled Shaq to play in the style he did.

A hypothetical Shaq in the 1960s would have played in a less physical manner. A hypothetical Wilt in the 2000s would have played more physically. But to judge them, based on the footage we have, you can only reasonably conclude that Shaq was a more physically imposing and dominant athlete.

How would they have gone head-to-head? Well I don't think young Wilt had the strength to meaningfully contain either young Shaq or prime-Shaq. Young Wilt's long skinny legs and high center of gravity aren't going to be much help guarding someone considerably heavier in the post.

Young Wilt's biggest advantage over Shaq is conditioning and any coach would encourage him to run-and-run to wear both young and prime-Shaq out to gain an advantage.

Older Wilt is far better equipped to guard both young and prime-Shaq and is perhaps the player best equipped in NBA history to do so. Old Wilt is largely irrelevant offensively as a scorer and so any version of Shaq could easily contain a player who doesn't want to shoot.

[bamheat]

I went on a deep dive watching 60s and 70s nba this year.

After watching hours of atrocious basketball, I have to go with Shaq.

[70sFan]

A hypothetical Shaq in the 1960s would have played in a less physical manner. A hypothetical Wilt in the 2000s would have played more physically. But to judge them, based on the footage we have, you can only reasonably conclude that Shaq was a more physically imposing and dominant athlete.

If you only look at the offensive side of the floor, then you're right - Shaq was certainly a more dominant physically. If you include defense though, it's starting to look more complicated. Wilt made defensive plays that were basically impossible to do by 99.9% players in NBA history. Shaq was never a dominant defender and he never turned his athleticism into functional advantage on that end.

How would they have gone head-to-head? Well I don't think young Wilt had the strength to meaningfully contain either young Shaq or prime-Shaq. Young Wilt's long skinny legs and high center of gravity aren't going to be much help guarding someone considerably heavier in the post.

What do you mean by "young Wilt"? Rookie Wilt was certainly too small. By 1962, he already weighed 275 lbs, but he wasn't fully developed. 1964 Wilt was the same size as 1970s Wilt though and he was much more athletic.

I'd definitely take 1964-68 Wilt to guard Shaq over 1970-73. He was just as big (290-310 lbs, give or take 10 lbs depending on a season), much more athletic, quicker (which is important against O'Neal) and more active on both ends of the court.