Young Shaq doing a coast-to-coast euro step dunk like Giannis (1994)

[Im Still Ballin]

Young Shaq was a different beast.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rte0KxWhO3g

[FultzNationRISE]

Truly the most freakish human athlete probably to ever exist.

[HunterSThompson]

that was 94? Jesus.. he already looked fat as hell

[expansionera]

Funny seeing SEGA and Sears advertisements on the court

[Airupthere]

Psshh, plumbers right?

[Im Still Ballin]

that was 94? Jesus.. he already looked fat as hell

He looks lean to me. You have to understand that Shaq's got bigger bones than average NBA centers. Young Shaq looked both big and skinny at the same time.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTV_unJ4YBmJQY17dO_Poh_IkBVpGaDw RPGwZscRSfkWSclQXBp2kbDxKYSH3vLByK1Dvo&usqp=CAU

https://www.tcdb.com/Images/Cards/Basketball/2169/2169-3Fr.jpg

[Im Still Ballin]

Shaq was 300 pounds when he came into the league, looking trim like this:

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/WOYAAOSwmh9e-CLK/s-l400.jpg

He was around 330-340 during his peak 1999-2000 season. Got up to 370-380 around 2003 or so.

[HunterSThompson]

He looks lean to me. You have to understand that Shaq's got bigger bones than average NBA centers. Young Shaq looked both big and skinny at the same time.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTV_unJ4YBmJQY17dO_Poh_IkBVpGaDw RPGwZscRSfkWSclQXBp2kbDxKYSH3vLByK1Dvo&usqp=CAU

https://www.tcdb.com/Images/Cards/Basketball/2169/2169-3Fr.jpg

those pics might be from 93 or early 94


by 95 he was definitely packing in the pounds

https://i.ibb.co/jTjr85g/Screenshot-20220114-154949-Gallery.jpg

[RRR3]

Shaq was 300 pounds when he came into the league, looking trim like this:

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/WOYAAOSwmh9e-CLK/s-l400.jpg

He was around 330-340 during his peak 1999-2000 season. Got up to 370-380 around 2003 or so.
He was definitely 400+ at some point in his career.

[Akeem34TheDream]

Did anyone see peak Shaq live? I wonder how he would look up close. It would be an experience.

[Shogon]

Truly the most freakish human athlete probably to ever exist.

He's definitely up there on a very short list.

I don't think he beats Wilt though. And then there's LeBron.

Those are the three.

Jordan coming in at 4.

And that's just the NBA.

Peak Dwight was up there too. He wasn't nearly as good at basketball as the other 4 but his leaping ability and speed for his size is unheard of.

[FultzNationRISE]

He's definitely up there on a very short list.

I don't think he beats Wilt though. And then there's LeBron.

Those are the three.

Jordan coming in at 4.

And that's just the NBA.

Peak Dwight was up there too. He wasn't nearly as good at basketball as the other 4 but his leaping ability and speed for his size is unheard of.

I mean Wilt was nimble and strong for being so tall, but he was still a stilt before he started roiding later in life. He was also a little bit mechanical with the ball, altho to be fair everyone in his era was.

Shaq was seven feet with gorilla girth. Could move like a runningback, with impressive ball skills to boot.

Ive posted this vid before but it feels like people still forget:


https://youtu.be/ufg2KlnoM3g

Swishes the jumper just inside the arc (albeit wnba at the time) then absolutely COOKS Michael with a crossover, pump fake, and tear drop leaner.

7 feet tall, 330 pounds.

Mountain lion tall tales notwithstanding, I dont see anything that superhuman coming from Wilt.

[HoopsNY]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I recall Shaq coming into the league at 275 lbs. By 2000, he was 315 lbs. By 2004, he was 330-340.

[3ba11]

I mean Wilt was nimble and strong for being so tall, but he was still a stilt before he started roiding later in life. He was also a little bit mechanical with the ball, altho to be fair everyone in his era was.

Shaq was seven feet with gorilla girth. Could move like a runningback, with impressive ball skills to boot.

Ive posted this vid before but it feels like people still forget:


https://youtu.be/ufg2KlnoM3g

Swishes the jumper just inside the arc (albeit wnba at the time) then absolutely COOKS Michael with a crossover, pump fake, and tear drop leaner.

7 feet tall, 330 pounds.

Mountain lion tall tales notwithstanding, I dont see anything that superhuman coming from Wilt.


All the moves that Shaq used he got from MJ, whereas Wilt didn't have MJ to elevate his offensive game.

Btw, there's video of Wilt getting his shoulder at the rim on a left-handed block

or sprinting coast-to-coast at 35 years old and chasedown blocking someone like he's 21 years old..

He also played every minute (48 mpg) in some seasons without ever fouling out - Phil and Shaq actually had a joke where Phil played Shaq 48 minutes every game and Shaq didn't last 1 week.

[Kblaze8855]

Thing about Wilt is no matter what he did nobody was impressed. It didn’t get highlighted. Crowds didn’t explode. They didn’t care about what we consider highlight plays then anyway. It was arenas filled with guys in full suits and women in gowns and dresses casually watching. The very game this happened:







https://thumbs.gfycat.com/ConstantHeavenlyAfricanbushviper-size_restricted.gif







the announcers talked about how slow Wilt was now. He was washed at that point and announcers didn’t call any attention to that play at all. Lebron makes it right now and it would be a top play. Wilt makes it on a repaired knee(with 70s techniques) at 300 pounds and nothing. The standards just weren’t the same.


We would have 6 angles of this today:



https://www.hostpic.org/images/2201150621060324.jpeg

[Kblaze8855]

And yes some angles would be less impressive but at least we could really evaluate it. Half his shit is hard to evaluate even when it’s caught on camera. There’s a picture taken of him jumping to stretch out in high jump next to the bar and he’s damn near waist high with it. People say it’s photoshopped but I have it in a book from 32 years ago. It won some photography contest at a state fair in the 50s.

Like everything else it just seems to hard to believe it makes him look bad or at least seem exaggerated.

[FultzNationRISE]

Thing about Wilt is no matter what he did nobody was impressed. It didn’t get highlighted. Crowds didn’t explode. They didn’t care about what we consider highlight plays then anyway. It was arenas filled with guys in full suits and women in gowns and dresses casually watching. The very game this happened:

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/ConstantHeavenlyAfricanbushviper-size_restricted.gif


the announcers talked about how slow Wilt was now. He was washed at that point and announcers didn’t call any attention to that play at all. Lebron makes it right now and it would be a top play. Wilt makes it on a repaired knee(with 70s techniques) at 300 pounds and nothing. The standards just weren’t the same.


We would have 6 angles of this today:


https://www.hostpic.org/images/2201150621060324.jpeg


Well I certainly need no convincing Wilt was a freak. And Im not trying to downplay him because of his era or anything. I just think Shaq is the single most improbable combination of height/girth/agility/coordination ever. I mean to me, Shaq’s athletic uniqueness makes even Lebron’s look commonplace. Being that large is so unlikely to begin with... and then he can still move, dribble, and shoot jumpers SMOOTHLY at that size!?

It legit melts my mind, man.

[Kblaze8855]

I don’t Disagree. You can put shaq at the top I’m just saying it’s a shame we can’t really see most of what Wilt did. And even what was recorded wasn’t well covered. Nobody gave a shit about what we would consider highlight plays. A highlight reel from 1961 would have basic jumpers even from players we know were athletic and no mention of spectacular plays even as they happened.

Fans just didn’t care for the most part. A basket was a basket and a block was a block and they barely acknowledged special ones.