Sorry guys, but if I have a choice of Shaq in his prime and Russell in his prime I am taking Shaq. Russell was of course amazing in his era, but if he had to defend Shaq he'd have a tough time. He gives up 3 inches and about 75 pounds to the man. You can't expect a kid in his twenties to be able to know how good Russell was either. He grew up watching Shaq and to a lesser extent Kareem. Russell is almost "fictional" to him.
As far as him putting himself in front of Bird, that is not an issue. I would expect the guy to. Just like PP said he was the best player.
There are many reasons to hate Lebron, but this wasn't one of them.
Not to derail the thread but...
What was Shaq's competition in his prime? A 34 year old Mutombo? A 35 year old Robinson? A tweener who was still too young in Duncan? Alonzo with health problems?
Shaq is great, but he also lucked out in that he reached his peak just as the league was suffering a drought of big men. I mean, look at the centers that have made the all star team during shaq's prime and how unremarkable they are: Alonzo (in a season he player 13 games and scored 13ppg), Theo Ratliff, Ilgauskas, Dale Davis...
The center situation was so bad, that from 02 to about 07, Shaq made the all nba 1st, but the all nba 2nd team had no true center, only guys like Ben Wallace, Amare and Webber...
If I was starting a team from scratch, I would pick not only Russel over Shaq, Id also pick Wilt, Kareem and Hakeem over him.
excellent point. Hakeem owned shaq when they faced each other in the finals, totally owned him
The Rockets might have owned the Magic back in the 95 Finals but Shaq held his own against Olajuwon.
Shaq (4 Games) = 28 PPG, 12.5 RPG, 6.25 APG, 2.5 BPG, 59.45% shooting (44/74) [11 FGMPG/18.5 FGAPG]
Dream (4 Games) = 32.75 PPG, 11.5 RPG, 5.5 APG, 2.0 BPG, 2.0 SPG, 48.3% shooting (56/116) [14 FGMPG/29 FGAPG]
The case could be made that Shaq outperformed the Dream, overall, but not when it came to the big shots down the stretch.