Michael Jordan’s Close Friend Uses Shaquille O’Neal as Prop to Dismantle NBA Legend’s Controversial Stance

If there’s one thing we’ve learned recently, it’s that being an NBA legend doesn’t make you immune to criticism. This happened earlier with Dr. J‘s controversial list, which excluded several modern NBA stars. And now, Shaquille O’Neal has entered the chat. Big Diesel named his All-Time NBA Top 10 list in a new interview. While fans still debate it, they largely agree with this list. Unlike the criticism, his predecessor received for leaving some of the biggest names of the leagues out of it.

Shaquille O’Neal named several of his former teammates as well as current stars in his fantasy starting five and his all-time greatest players. In the same interview, he defended the basketball legend for his list. But one retired professional athlete had a different take.

Shaquille O’Neal names his All-Time Top 10

The Los Angeles Times profiled Shaquille O’Neal recently and asked him about his all-time top 10 list. He divided his list into first and second teams.

In no particular order, he named himself alongside LeBron James, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, and Michael Jordan as his starting five. He rounded off his list with Stephen Curry, Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan, Karl Malone, and Isiah Thomas. He went a step further and added Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to make it a soccer-style top 11.

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Fans were sincerely impressed. It’s looking a lot like the lists of several NBA fans who’ve followed this set of players for a long time. Some would tweak it but they like that he kept Bryant, James, and Curry on the list. Hardly surprising, as Shaq will always uphold MJ and Black Mamba as his favorites.

Only a few days ago, Julius Erving, aka Dr. J, revealed his own top 10. That got the 11-time All-Star a wave of criticism. He left out prominent players like James and Curry, but what irked the most was the omission of Kobe Bryant.

Retired NFL pro, Marcellus Wiley has turned to sportscasting now. He has an interesting friendship with Michael Jordan. And he’s using O’Neal’s list to take jabs at Dr. J.

He drew comparisons to two football pros, London Fletcher and Ray Lewis. They might be outstanding individually but not comparable. According to Wiley, Erving “didn’t do enough marketing for himself.”

But Dr J tried. The Philadelphia 76ers legend defensively claimed that James and Curry are still active players and he named a list of former pros.

Shaq defended Dr. J’s List

Dr. J‘s list included Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan, Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, Elgin Baylor, Kareem, Magic, Malone, and Nate Archibald. To be fair, all these players are pretty accomplished in their own right.

The retired pro was cautious about ruffling feathers. So he added that he meant no disrespect to Charles Barkley and Kareem. “That’s my list.” But it caused an uproar. Atlanta Hawks player, Trae Young, was one of the harshest critics. He called the list “fake” because of the players left off it.

Shaq was asked about Erving’s list, which he too was left off. He declined to comment but was more respectful on the matter.

“Hey man, I got no problem with Dr. J’s list,” O’Neal said. “He’s the great Dr. J. He paved the way for all of us. He can say what he wants and nobody should say a damn thing about it.” 

Do you agree with Shaq’s opinion on the matter?

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