Despite having gone through his fair share of troubles and controversies, one cannot deny that Shaquille O’Neal has created an incredible legacy as a basketball player. Considered one of the best NBA players of all time, the Big Aristotle continues to inspire young athletes. However, Diesel has yet another title under his belt that makes him a contender despite his retired status. While it has been over a decade since he exited the league, the Los Angeles Lakers legend was heavily praised by Isiah Thomas while the Detroit Pistons legend undermined 2x MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.

The debate about who’s more dominating between O’Neal and Giannis has been going on for a while. After Giannis stated that he was taller than O’Neal, Shaq revealed that he wasn’t as tall as people thought he was. He said that he just played like someone 7’1 tall.

Isiah Thomas makes his Shaquille O’Neal stance clear

Shaquille O’Neal and NBA superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo have often been compared to each other. Similar to the Michael Jordan-LeBron James GOAT debate, the NBA world has been in dispute over Shaq and Giannis’ dominance level on the court. While many believed that Giannis had the skills to overpower the Lakers legend, others claimed that Shaq in his prime could easily overpower the Greek Freak. Detroit Pistons legend Isiah Thomas can be counted among the latter group.

After NBA veteran Richard Jefferson stated that Shaq was indeed the most dominant player in basketball history, Thomas was among the first ones to back him up on the claim.

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Shortly after Jefferson made the comment in the recent episode of The Old Man and the Three podcast, Thomas retweeted a post featuring Jefferson’s statement and wrote, “I’ve said this before @shaq would be a more dominant version of @Giannis_An34 @OldManAndThree”

NBA champion gives his thoughts on the Giannis-Shaq debate

In the latest episode of JJ Redick’s The Old Man and the Three, Richard Jefferson did not hesitate from publicly calling Shaq ‘the most physically dominant person I’ve ever seen in my life’. When asked to address the comparison between the Hall of Famer and the Greek Freak, Jefferson was quick to say that he did not like the comparison between the two.

He said, “Giannis is the same type of dominance when you see like percentage around the rim because there was a size and a f*****g mass to Shaq that was different. He was like Embiid but he moved like Giannis, like imagine that. Like, he wasn’t that skilled but I’m saying like his size, he is 10x bigger than Embiid and he was athletic like Giannis.”

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Jefferson concluded by saying that while Giannis is skilled, no one had to change their entire game plan accordingly to guard the Bucks star as they did with Shaq.