Shaquille O'Neal is arguably the most dominant player in NBA history, but Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green thinks that he and his team could have stopped the Shaq-led Los Angeles Lakers had they met in an alternate universe.
Green made a recent appearance on The Big Podcast with O'Neal, and when the subject of the two dynasties surfaced, Green not surprisingly said that he felt the Warriors could have contained the four-time NBA champion and defeated the Lakers.
Well Green did not go as far to say that he could guard O'Neal individually, he did state that the Warriors would be able to limit Shaq with great team defense. Green specifically said he would front O'Neal in the post with Andrew Bogut playing behind Shaq.
Shaq did not want to hear anything about Bogut defending him, and then scoffed when Green said he would also defend O'Neal as the backup center.
Finally, Green stated that Klay Thompson would be guarding Kobe Bryant.
Sorry Draymond, but I'm not liking these matchups for your side.
Shaquille O'Neal was a different beast with the Lakers
Yes, basketball was very different back in the early 2000s. Traditional lineups were still in play. Centers didn't really shoot threes. Positionless basketball was still light years away.
However, peak Shaq would have dominated in absolutely any era. We have never really seen anything like him since, and we probably never will again.
As for the idea of the Warriors being able to contain O'Neal, it's pretty ludicrous. Shaq went up against some of the best defensive centers ever in names like Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo.
Aside from Olajuwon, who O'Neal himself couldn't guard, Shaq made minced meat of all of them. So Green's idea that he and Bogut would be able to effectively contain O'Neal is definitely one of the more out there things that Green has said, but given his bravado, it isn't shocking he thinks that (which is hilarious considering how bold Shaq himself is).
You also get the feeling that Thompson would have had a very difficult time covering Bryant. Thompson is not known for his athleticism, and Bryant was one of the most athletic shooting guards to ever play the game. He probably would have encountered a whole lot of trouble hanging with Kobe out on the perimeter.
We tend to forget just how incredible those early 2000s Lakers teams were. They three-peated for a reason, after all.
In Shaq's best season in Los Angeles, he led the NBA with 29.7 points per game to go along with 13.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists and three blocks over 40 minutes a night. He also shot a league-best 57.4 percent from the floor en route to winning the MVP award. In the finals that season, O'Neal registered an insane 38 points and 16.7 boards per game in a six-game victory over the Indiana Pacers. He made 61.1 percent of his field-goal attempts in that series.
As great as the Warriors have been with Draymond, Stephen Curry and Thompson, it seems very hard to believe that they would have been able to stop peak Shaq. That's something that pretty much no team in NBA history would have been able to achieve.
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