Los Angeles Lakers great Shaquille O’Neal picked his All-Time starting five for the franchise. Do you agree with his picks?
The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the most storied franchises in the NBA. They have had a number of Hall of Famers wear the purple and gold, helping to lead them to 16 NBA Championships. One of those all-time greats is Shaquille O’Neal.
O’Neal is one of the most dominant players to ever step onto an NBA court. At 7-feet-1 inch tall and weighing in at 325 pounds, O’Neal was a mountain of a man. He was a force on the inside on both ends of the court.
The Hall of Famer played right in the middle of his prime with the Lakers, spending eight seasons with the team. O’Neal was an integral part of three Lakers titles, as the team three-peated in 2000, 2001 and 2002.
O’Neal formed a dominant duo with shooting guard Kobe Bryant, another future Hall of Famer. They are just two in what is a long list of great players the Lakers have had play for them.
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This season, we saw the team at NBA 2K take a crack at picking the best ones. In this year’s game, NBA 2K18, All-Time teams were released for every franchise. Not surprisingly, the Lakers had the most dominant one, as they had 11 players rated a 90 or better overall.
In the game, Magic Johnson, Jerry West, Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar were named the starters. That is an amazing lineup that would get the job done on both ends of the court. Not to mention, two of the most dominant players ever in O’Neal and Abdul-Jabbar sharing patrolling the paint next to each other.
O’Neal, though, has a different lineup in mind. O’Neal was recently a guest on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. He was asked to make the All-Time starting lineup for the Lakers, and his differed slightly from what 2K put together.
"“Magic Johnson at the one. Kobe at the two. Jerry West at the three. Big Game James at the four. And Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is not the five, I am. Sorry, Kareem.”"
It is hard to argue with O’Neal’s picks just as it was hard to mount an argument against the lineup that 2K put together. Both are loaded with great players and would be a handful for any opponents to slow down.
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There are plenty of other players that would warrant consideration as well. Wilt Chamberlain, George Mikan, Elgin Baylor to name a few. They made the Lakers All-Time team in NBA 2K18 but did not make the cut for their starting lineup or O’Neal’s.