Draymond Green has a lot of confidence in his ability and he has a lot of confidence in the ability of his Golden State Warriors. Green recently had a debate with Shaquille O'Neal, one of the best bigs of all time, about his championship Warriors taking on Shaq's past Los Angeles Lakers teams. Green said that he wouldn't allow Shaq to get the ball, and he said that Klay Thompson would guard Kobe Bryant. Shaq, like most people hearing that claim, raised an eyebrow.
“Draymond Green says that if the championship-winning Warriors were to play Shaq’s Lakers, he would not allow Shaq to get the ball,” A tweet from NBACentral said.
“Shaq: ‘Who guarding Kobe?'
“Draymond: ‘Klay'”
Greens comments have started somewhat of a debate about what would happen if those two teams did really play, and most people agree with Shaquille O'Neal. It was especially surprising to see Green make the claim about him guarding Shaq. Green is only 6'6″ 230 pounds. Shaq is a complete unit standing at 7'1″ and he is over 300 pounds.
Former NBA star Rasheed Wallace recently discussed the debate on his podcast, Sheed and Tyler, and he thinks that Draymond Green is crazy for thinking that he can guard Shaquille O'Neal. Wallace noted that Green is a similar size to Kobe Bryant, and someone of that size can't keep up with Shaq.
“You’re the same size as Kobe, thinking you can guard Shaq, what the f**k,” Wallace said. “Dray, that’s my guy, but he’s smoking something, he’s on something. Those were some good Lakers teams, but not only that, everybody knew their role on that squad. From first man down to 7th or 8th man that Phil was playing, everybody knew their role year in and year out. Not saying that that Golden State team didn’t but it’s a whole different caliber cuz. First of all, a young Shaq, I still got elbow problems to this day from playing against him in the late ‘90s.”
Green might not realize how much of a problem Shaq was back in the day. We'll never truly know who would win that battle, but any realistic basketball fan knows that Green likely isn't going to be able to shut down one of the best bigs of all time.
Rasheed Wallace thinks that Draymond Green would foul out early
One thing about Draymond Green is that he is a very physical player. It has gotten him in trouble sometimes, but if he was guarding Shaquille O'Neal, he would have to be physical. Rasheed Wallace thinks that he would foul out in the first quarter.
Rasheed Wallace: “First of all Dray’s going to foul out in the first quarter. If Dray plays him, he’s going to foul out in the first quarter.”
Bonzi Wells: “Shaq was devastating man, he was devastating.”
Rasheed Wallace: “Look, if he can do what he did against other mother f**kers who were 7’1, 7’2, 300 something pounds, what is he going to do against a small forward trying to guard him.”
Wallace makes a lot of good points. Again, we'll never know, but everything about the matchup points to Shaq having a lot of success.
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