NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal took on a friendly game of “start, bench, cut” in which he gets three players to choose from for each of these actions. His choices were none other than Allen Iverson, Chris Webber, and Tim Duncan — three of the best picks of the '90s.
Unsurprisingly, he picked fellow Hall of Famer Allen Iverson to get the starting nod, but shockingly picked Chris Webber as his bench guy — cutting the soon-t0-be Hall of Famer Tim Duncan.
Trying to explain his choices, O'Neal made the argument that Duncan achieved so much during his NBA career due to the team he had around him:
“Fundamental is one of those players he’s got a lot but he has a lot of bodyguards too,” said O'Neal during the NBA TV segment. “C-Webb didn’t have a lot of bodyguards. Imagine Tim on a regular team. Would he be Tim? C-Webb has some sh*t. Imagine if you put C-Webb on that Spurs team tell me what you got.”
Who ya got? 🤔@SHAQ and @RoParrish play “Start, Bench, Cut” on Storytime with Shaq! pic.twitter.com/kM98IdYF59
— NBA TV (@NBATV) April 5, 2020
Unfortunately, this is yet another case of the big man basing these decisions on his personal bias. Sure, it's his opinion, but one would think one of the greatest players to play the game would see the skill gap between Duncan — a player some argue is the greatest power forward ever — and Webber, who would have trouble scratching the surface of a top-20 list at his position.
Shaq missed the mark here, likely purposely too, considering the endless battles he had against Duncan and how the Spurs took his Los Angeles Lakers out of potential NBA championship runs in 1999 and 2003.
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