Jamal Crawford Broke Down Why Shaquille O'Neal Would Dominate The Modern NBA: "There's No More True Centers"

Shaquille O'Neal became synonymous with dominance during his run with the Los Angeles Lakers in particular. He is the last player to win three consecutive Finals MVPs while winning a three-peat. 

The Big Diesel has at times been called the last truly great big man, although Nikola Jokic is making a strong case for himself. In any case, to all those that wonder how he would fare in the modern game, Jamal Crawford thinks nothing would be different. 

"First off you're probably putting like a power forward on him because there's no more true centers," Crawford said on the Dan Patrick Show. "So yeah, Shaq would do whatever he wanted to do. I mean Kevon Looney is not going to shut down Shaq.

"No disrespect to Kevon, but... he was already the most dominant in that physical era, like in this era... Shaq might even try to dust off some of his point guard skills from high school and bring it up, drop it off, and build a little bit of everything."

In four seasons from 1999 to 2003 with the Los Angeles Lakers, O'Neal was named MVP, made All-NBA First Team every season, and won three rings. He averaged 28.3 points, 12.1 rebounds, and 2.6 blocks per game during this time, no team had an answer for Shaq in the slightest. 

In the modern game, his complete lack of three-point shooting might become a problem, but he would still dominate inside. As Crawford points out, the centers of today are expected to do a lot more than just sit in the paint, and every one of them would get destroyed by a prime Shaq. 

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Shaquille O'Neal Doesn't Rate Modern NBA Big Men Very Highly

This take from Crawford may receive some pushback from fans, but Shaquille O'Neal surely agrees with it himself. Based on some of the things he has said about modern big men, it's obvious that he doesn't rate them too highly, at least in terms of dominance in the post. 

"The game is evolving. We older big guys don’t look at it as evolving. We look at it as soft because guys don’t want to get down there and bang. Which is okay. New era new generation, I can’t tell them how to play. I can’t tell them what to do."

Nikola Jokic is one of the rare few that has earned O'Neal's respect and he seems to be next in line as one of the great NBA centers. And even though Jokic's game is supremely polished, O'Neal likely still thinks he would take Big Honey on if he were in his prime. 

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