Is Shaq top 5 ever? Why, why not?

Oscar Robertson had neither a more decorated/successful career nor more impact on games than Shaq. No way is Oscar above Shaq. No way.

[QUOTE=72-10]He is top 10 but there is no way he is top 5 or top 7 for that matter.

These players are demonstrably greater:

Michael Jordan
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Wilt Chamberlain
Bill Russell
Magic Johnson
Larry Bird
Oscar Robertson

These players are arguably greater:
Jerry West
Julius Erving, Hakeem Olajuwon (probably not)[/QUOTE]

:applause:

[QUOTE=72-10]He is top 10 but there is no way he is top 5 or top 7 for that matter.

These players are demonstrably greater:

Michael Jordan
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Wilt Chamberlain
Bill Russell
Magic Johnson
Larry Bird
Oscar Robertson

These players are arguably greater:
Jerry West
Julius Erving, Hakeem Olajuwon (probably not)[/QUOTE]

Oscar better then Shaq? Ask anyone who doesn't follow basketball and doesn't know much about it. Everyone will know Shaq, same can't be said for Oscar. So Shaq has a bigger impact on the game, and better stats, and more achievements.

[QUOTE=plowking]Oscar better then Shaq? Ask anyone who doesn't follow basketball and doesn't know much about it. Everyone will know Shaq, same can't be said for Oscar. So Shaq has a bigger impact on the game, and better stats, and more achievements.[/QUOTE]

So what? There isn

Oscar rep is mostly because of his triple double season.

[QUOTE=Collie]Oscar rep is mostly because of his triple double season.[/QUOTE]

Well he

[QUOTE=biisak]Well he

[QUOTE=biisak]Well he

[QUOTE=plowking]Ah yes, the best way of determining which player was better then another.[/QUOTE]

Who said it was? Don

[QUOTE]You mean the dominance that gave him 0 titles in his prime? He was only able to win later on in his career where he was on a stacked team.[/QUOTE]

The same dominance that led him break about a million records and that led a mediocre Warrior team to the 1960 and 1962 ECF, losing to the 60+ win Celtics in 6 and 7 games (losing in the second case to the Celtics by only 2 points in game 7).
1967 is definitely during Wilt's prime. I don't know how you can possibly say that it wasn't. because he didn't win the scoring title? Big deal, he pretty much obliterated boxscores, recording one triple-double after another, won the MVP by a landslide. If that's a "past prime" player, OK...

The 1972 team wasn't as stacked as you think it was. Actually, they were overachivers. They were considered an old team, with Wilt being 35-36, West only a year younger, Elgin Baylor retired and a so-so bench. Among the big weaons, only Goodrich was in his prime. They had already lost to the Bucks in 1971 (though they played without West) and few gave them chances of winning it all. 69 wins? 33 in a row? If you told this to anyone before the start of the season, they'd think you're nuts.
BTW, Wilt was still an MVP contestant, would be a serious DPOY contestant if the award existed and easily won the Finals' MVP. He was still the best player of his team, even past his prime.

[QUOTE]Bill Russell- You have to play both sides of the floor to be considered truely great.[/QUOTE]

Magic and Bird disagree. Oh, and Drazen, too.

[QUOTE=plowking]Oscar better then Shaq? Ask anyone who doesn't follow basketball and doesn't know much about it. Everyone will know Shaq, same can't be said for Oscar. So Shaq has a bigger impact on the game, and better stats, and more achievements.[/QUOTE]

Apparently we should measure greatness in the basketball world by using the lack of knowledge of people outside of it as the ruler.:roll:

And you appear to be one of these people who doesn't follow basketball if you do not recognize that Oscar was more impressive statistically than Shaq. In fact Oscar is among that elite class statistically with Wilt and Michael. It should be self-evident that Oscar had considerably more skill than Shaq. If a point guard can change a game as much as a 7 foot center can, I'm going to give the point guard more credit. He has to work harder to achieve something great.:hammerhead: Oscar has more influence on the game, and has been the standard bearer of the "all-around" player (perhaps Jordan supplanted him).

[QUOTE]Originally Posted by plowking
Oscar better then Shaq? Ask anyone who doesn't follow basketball and doesn't know much about it. Everyone will know Shaq, same can't be said for Oscar. So Shaq has a bigger impact on the game, and better stats, and more achievements.[/QUOTE]

Really, a lot of that has to do with the fact that Oscar is 25 years older at this point. So it's not a particularly strong reason why. And Oscar's triple double is almost a little underrated, because if you aggregate his numbers over his first 5 years, he actually averaged a triple double over that whole span, which is remarkable really regardless of how you adjust the numbers.

That said, I still think Shaq is ahead of Oscar. I used to think Oscar was in the 7-10 range, with West, but I'm more inclined now to put the MVP caliber, multiple title leading bigs in there, namely Shaq, Duncan, Hakeem, and Malone. I still feel all of them fall just behind the other six, mostly because of the multiple MVPs and multiple titles. Oscar and West to me are just behind them, probably in a tier to themselves, but perhaps lumpable into another small group.

Shaq during his prime had more on-court impact than any other player ever had or probably will.

To list Chamberlame, Bill "No Muscle" Russel or Magic "Misused His Johnson" Johnson ahead of Shaq is absurd.

players better than shaq

JOrdan
Bird
Magic
Wilt
Hakeem(shaq said so )
Kareem

same lvl as shaq

Barkley
pippen
Bill Russel
Pete Maravich
Oscar robertson
Moses Malone
Dr J
David Robinson

[quote=Rekindled]players better than shaq

JOrdan
Bird
Magic
Wilt
Hakeem(shaq said so )
Kareem

[U][B]same lvl as shaq[/B][/U]

[SIZE=3][B]Barkley
pippen[/B][/SIZE]
Bill Russel
[SIZE=3][B]Pete Maravich
Oscar robertson
Moses Malone
Dr J
David Robinson[/B][/SIZE][/quote]
Why the hell are you on this thread...It is obvious you know nothing about basketball.