HoopsHype.com Columns

Shaq or Jordan?
by Faraji Whalen / June 12, 2002

Who the hell knows? Each has his diehard fans, his loyal supporters who will argue his hero’s case about every double-entendre, each turn of phrase, each catchy hook. But come three in the morning, when the Fritos are gone and we’re out of beer, chances are good there won’t be a consensus. Another hung jury. Everybody go home, retrial set for next Thursday at Mike’s house. But when you bring up basketball, everybody knows who’s the greatest player ever. If you don’t answer Michael Jordan, people look at you like you have a learning disability.

Sure, your Uncle Vernon from Tuscaloosa will wax poetic about how Wilt Chamberlain was the greatest thing since pickled pigs’ feet, and Walt Clyde Frazier was a snappier dresser. But then, Uncle Vernon wears plaid pants with striped shirts and falls asleep fairly often. However, if you change the word “best” to “dominant”, in late May and early June, you’re talking about a yellow and purple jersey with 34 on the back.

See, Shaquille O’Neal’s game is dominant. No one can stop him. No one. Jesus himself with Muhammed playing the weak side double team would struggle to hold 7-1 and 320 pounds of pure muscle to under thirty. Shaq literally changes the game. He changes the opponent’s defense so you have to double team him. If you don’t, he’ll catch the entry pass two feet from the rim, and dunk on you. He’ll probably do that even if you double-team him, but at least then, he might kick it out to Robert Horry or Rick Fox or, God forbid Kobe, and they might miss the open three. Either way, you’re screwed.

He even makes free throws now, so you can toss the Hack-a-Shaq defense out with all the other good ideas you had last year, like those Regis Philbin shirt and tie combos. He changes your offense, too. Guess what’s happening to that Spalding when the opponent’s pretty boy small forward tries to slash through the lane and finger roll his way to the stat column. Jack Nicholson will have a new souvenir. You really think whatever seven-footer from some distant corner of Carjackistan is really going to back Shaq into the post? Not likely. You’d better hope your guards are raining threes, because if they’re bricking, guess who’s coming up with the rebound?

On the other side of that coin, name the player that could regularly stop MJ’s fade-away jumper. You’re probably drawing a blank. OK, try this. Name a center that was quick enough to stop Jordan from scoring in the lane with some feat of acrobatic insanity decided upon three seconds after those red and white Nikes left the floor. Hmmmm. They didn’t call the guy Air for nothing now, did they? Jordan didn’t miss clutch free throws. If you went left and he crossed right, you could have used the ensuing jump shot as a down payment on a Lexus. That new one, with the frog eyes and the convertible hard top.

That’s how money Jordan was in his prime. And unlike Shaq, who owes his dominance to his superhuman size and strength, Jordan was only 6-6 and a lick over 215 pounds. Jordan willed himself to win like no one since Keyser Soze.

The argument then comes down not to who was more dominant in his time, because both were the pinnacle of their respective times. It’s like arguing whether Ali could beat Tyson, or whether Iceberg Slim could have out-pimped Willie Dynamite. Who you think is the most dominant player rests largely in your perception of how the game should be played. If you still get chills when you see a low-arc twenty-footer singe the net, you’ll argue for Jordan. If you like to see big white boys get posterized, you’ll probably argue Shaq’s position. Personally, I think Ali would have whipped Tyson senseless. Goldie would have made Willie Dynamite and Iceberg look like L7 squares. As for rappers and ballers, I’ll give you two for one: “MJ, Him Jay, Fade-away, Perfect!”

Faraji Whalen is an Atlanta-based freelance writer and a regular contributor to HoopsHype.com

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