re: LSU All-time basketball team vs. anyone else's

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college Shaq would dominate any historic college center in the post.




No, he wouldn't.

Russell would frustrate the hell out of him with his defense alone.

Chamberlain would match him with strength and score against him at will.

Hakeem's athleticism would win out.

Duncan I'm not sure but I'd pay to see it.

Walton would school him. That guy was a complete center.

Kareem and Hayes would more than hold their own.

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Good points. I did read an article in the early 90's that quoted Chamberlain, Russell and Walton on various aspects of ,at that time, young Shaq's game. All three agreed on one thing. He was the strongest bb player they had ever seen. I think he was 22 at the time and Walton had actually played with and schooled Shaq for Dale Brown when Shaq was a freshman at LSU. He commented on watching Shaq rip down the stanchion against Phoenix in his rookie year.(Which promptly caused a league-wide modification of stanchion supports).
Anyway, they were duly impressed with his raw game at that early stage of his career,the fact that he was drawing double teams routinely as a rookie, roughly 7 or 8 years before he peaked in the league. By the way, by his 4th or 5th year in the league Shaq was regularly handling the other so-called elite big men, Hakeem, Robinson and Duncan. As for as his 3 years in college, I saw 80 percent of his games and never saw anyone come close to matching up with him. Double and triple teams every time down.

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Pete would have ANY guards tongue hanging out after 15 minutes of play.

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Yessir. Saw him do just that many a time.

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LSU lost to UNC in the semis

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Yeah, but that was by fan vote. The actual guys from ESPN picked LSU.

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= AI

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Gotcha...

Chamberlain in college:

29.9 ppg and 18.9 rpg

52 and 31 in his varsity debut


Bill Russell in college:

20.7 ppg and 20.3 rpg

USF won 55 straight with Russell at center and 2 NCAA championships




Kareem in college:

26.4 ppg and 15.5 rpg

88-2 in college (could only play 3 years then) with 3 NCAA championships.

3 time college player of the year.

The dunk was BANNED because of his prominant use of the shot (The Lew Alcindor Rule)



Bill Walton in college:

20.3 ppg and 15.7 rpg

86-4 in college with two national championships and two 30-0 seasons.

Won the Naismith college player of the year award three straight years.



Shaq in college:

21.6 ppg 13.5 rpg

Adolph Rupp Winner one year

No NCAA championships.

Those are the facts about their college careers. Now tell me who achieved more in college. Objectively just looking at the facts.

I'm said it more than once in this thread. Shaq is a great, great player. He's among the elite to ever play the game. He just isn't the MOST elite ever. Not in college nor in the pros.

I actually think you have it backwards. I think Shaq is a much better pro than as a college player. He was very raw early on in college. In the pros he became a polished player to go along with his raw power. He's had a better career than Walton IMO in the pros and has more rings than Chamberlain. He stacks up very well.

Peace.

I don't believe so. I've had this argument many times with people who just can't accept that a program as historically mediocre as LSU's can legitimately argue for the best All-Time starting 5 ever.

Pistol
Shaq
CJ
Maclin
Stro/Bass/Petit/John Williams/Howard Carter/Shawn Griggs/Garrett Temple/Tyrus Thomas/etc.

The fourth and fifth are really interchangeable with the same result. With Pistol Pete and CJ on the perimeter, and Shaq underneath, there's barely any all-time 5 that can cover just those three. Add in any two competent 3 or 4 spot guys and it's absolutely unstoppable.

There has never been anyone who can stop Pete. There have only been a few guys ever who could stop CJ one on one and a few guys ever who could stop Shaq one on one, and I don't think any of them went to the same schools. So pretty much anyone's team is going to have to doubleteam Pete and either Shaq or CJ, which means there's nobody left over to guard our 4th and 5th men. And we've certainly had some guys that can score uncovered.

Defense could be a difficulty (Pete was not exactly famous for his tenacious D), which is why Griggs, Temple and Thomas are on the list.

But I honestly do not believe any other team could put together an all-time starting 5 that would beat ours. After that . . . well, we run real thin, real quick compared to the true historical powers.

KingJoey: You hit the nail on the head. That's what VABuckeye can't get. Not that it matters if he gets it or not.

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KingJoey: You hit the nail on the head. That's what VABuckeye can't get. Not that it matters if he gets it or not.

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Dufus (meant with all due respect).

I DO get it. I DO believe that LSU has an all-time starting five that is way up there in the top 5 of all-time. I DO believe that they could beat any other all-time top 5 on any given night.

I DO NOT believe that they'd dominate. They'd be in great games and might win or lose any one.

Fair enough?

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Now the LSU starting 5 would be formidable but Jordan is one of the best defenders of all-time and there ain't no way that Maravich or Jackson could check Jordan.

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There is no way Jordan could hold Pete to as few as Pete could hold Jordan. 44.2 per game from the perimeter WITHOUT a 3 point line. And that was NEVER against less than a double team. In 83 career games, 56 of them he scored over 40 points. 28 of them he went over 50.

And you'd still have to account for CJ -- the highest scoring freshman ever (because Pete wasn't allowed to play as a Freshman) -- on the perimeter. And then there's Shaq inside, and since no one ever came close to containing him one on one, I'd have trouble believing anyone could shut him down by themselves.

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Vince Carter on Maravich. As great as The Pistol was he never had to face a defender with the size and quickness of Vince Carter.

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Yes, but again, he did face two and three defenders who could easily combine for more speed and size than Carter had . . . and still averaged over 40.

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MJ at point. Would dominate Chris Jackson on the defensive and offensive end.

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Not a chance. Jordan couldn't even stop CJ in the pros consistently, and CJ was much better in college than in the NBA. He could definitely slow him down more than CJ would slow Jordan down, though.

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Rasheed Wallace on Shaq. They've matched up many times and Rasheed plays Shaq extremely tough.

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Maybe, but Rasheed was nowhere near the specimen in college that he is/was in the his peak of the NBA. Shaq was a freak as a Sophomore and Junior in college. No one even slowed him down without a double or (more often) triple team.

The thing people don't get about LSU's superstars is that we don't have teams every year like UNC, Duke, Kansas, UCLA, etc. None of these guys ever played together except for one year of CJ and Shaq when Shaq was a very raw Freshman. Every one of these guys routinely saw double and triple teams every single trip down court because they were surrounded by teammates far, far less talented than them. That (in addition to some lackluster coaching) is why none of them ever went far in the tournament. We never had a supporting cast with these guys. We'd have mediocre teams and then out of the blue some phenomenal superstar would show up and everybody piled on them.

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He just isn't the MOST elite ever. Not in college nor in the pros.

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Put Shaq against anyone of those guys 1 on 1, and he skull fricks them

they were great in a different era. But physically, they never played against someone like Shaq.


With that being said, Shaq would have a hard time guarding them.

But if you think the older guys would school Shaq, then you are just an old school homer. You think they were concerned about dunking with Lew Alcindor? lol. Imagine Shaq in that era