Shaquille O'Neal: Are There Really Only Two True Centers Left in the NBA?
Shaquille O'Neal has never been the type of person that allows the opportunity for a sound byte to pass, and in an interview at Madison Square Garden before a recent preseason game against the New York Knicks, Shaq was in rare form.
O'Neal touched on many different subjects during the course of his interview, but his strongest statements came when he was asked if there were any true centers left in the NBA.
O'Neal responded by saying that his style of play had killed the true low-post center, and that most NBA big men play a softer, European type brand of basketball.
I can see where O'Neal is coming from there since the NBA center is an endangered species, but in O'Neal's opinion, they may as well be on the brink of extinction since he only named two.
Dwight Howard, and strangely Yao Ming are the only true centers left in the NBA in O'Neal's estimation, and while he is entitled to his own opinion, his statement does a disservice to the few young talented centers out there.
Few people would argue that Howard is the league's most dominant interior force right now, and if he really did learn from a summer with Hakeem Olajuwon, he could be even better.
But, Yao has not played in a meaningful NBA game since the 2009 postseason, and during that span of time a few centers have managed to prove that the future of the position is not entirely dead.
Andrew Bogut, Andrew Bynum, Robin and Brook Lopez, Joakim Noah, and O'Neal's new teammate Kendrick Perkins are a few of the league's brighter young talents, and none of them have games that are perimeter based.
Bogut may come the closest, considering he has a decent perimeter game, but even he is still more comfortable playing with his back to the basket.
O'Neal didn't stop there, as he was also asked if there were any centers who could have a significant impact on a postseason team.
"Yeah, Dwight Howard and Yao Ming because they have young guys behind them".
Really?
I'm not sure if O'Neal actually paid attention to last year's postseason, but there were several centers besides himself that played critical roles in their team's success or failure.
Robin Lopez emerged in the playoffs against the Los Angeles Lakers, Bogut's absence due to injury potentially robbed the Milwaukee Bucks of a deep postseason run, and then there was Bynum's play in the Finals against O'Neal's Boston Celtics.
Bynum's physical presence and his willingness to play through pain factored largely in the Lakers championship last season, and although Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, and Ron Artest receive most of the credit, it's doubtful the Lakers would have prevailed without Bynum.
Even more ironic was O'Neal's glowing assessment of Howard, a player O'Neal once said he was not very impressed by because everything that Howard did was invented by him.
O'Neal also accused Howard of stealing his superman persona among other things, but now O'Neal makes Howard sound like the best thing to hit the market since sliced bread.
It's also important to note that when O'Neal was mourning the lost age of the center position two of the players he mentioned happened to be former Indiana Pacers' center Rik Smits, and former Portland center Kevin Duckworth.
Both Smits and Duckworth were exceptional players, but didn't each one thrive on a mid range jump shot?
Duckworth may have been a little more physical, but I'm not sure if Smits belongs in the category of rough interior centers.
Then again, most centers probably resembled European players during O'Neal's era of dominance, considering he was the biggest and most physical player of the past two decades.
Still, it seems like O'Neal's latest comments miss the mark, as so many of his remarks do, and while I agree that the center species is a dwindling breed, I'm not quite ready to write them off yet.
True low post centers are a rare breed, and it's difficult to name more than a handful who have the potential to excel, but the position is not limited strictly to Howard and Yao.
