NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal is the most dominant player in basketball history. No player has ever been as unstoppable when going to the rim as he was. The Diesel recently made an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” and called into question the potential dominance from San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama.
“Wemby is a great player. But I don’t really think you can be dominant when you shoot jumpers a lot. I think if he was an inside player at 7-foot-5, the answer would be yes. But when you shoot jumpers, you’re always going to go up and down,” O’Neal said.
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O’Neal’s comments are blunt and make it clear that he believes that shooting jumpshots prohibits a player from being considered dominant. Players who shoot a higher number of jumpshots are naturally going to have a lower field goal percentage than players who do most of their scoring in the paint, which may be what he’s referring to here.
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His comments lead to another question, what makes a player dominant?
Of course players like O’Neal, Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are dominant. But there’s an argument to be made that players like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant are equally as dominant due to their versatile offensive skills, despite a lower field goal percentage.
While Wembanyama may not be shattering backboards or dunking on everyone he sees, a simple eye test makes it clear that he’s as dominant as they come.
James Parker is an NBA writer for Ball Exclusives, follow him on X @TheJames_Parker
