Shaquille O’Neal and Scottie Pippen just won the internet. Or Shaq did. Or Pippen did. You’ll have to decide. The beauty isn’t in which way you lean, though. It’s in the delivery of both formers NBA great delivering jab after jab. What started as a debate over which hypothetical “All-Time” team would win between the Lakers and the Bulls, ended in a potentially not so light hearted take on each man’s roles during their respective careers.
It started with Shaq posting a photo with the arguable five best Lakers going up against the arguable five best Bulls, with O’Neal suggesting his All-Time Lakers would win “by fifty”. Pippen didn’t like that too much and, well, it just got crazy from there.
The point isn’t really about two has-beens arguing about who was better. It’s about Shaq’s original hypothetical. Which team would really win, and would the line really be a ridiculous 50?
50 Points?
A 50-point win going up against a team led by Michael Jordan just might be blasphemy. But Jordan also had some help in this fantasy lineup, with Derrick Rose, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman chipping in. The team Shaq shows for the Lakers is quite formidable on the surface, but even if you agree the Lakers would win this showdown, it’s pretty hard to believe it’d be by 50, or even 20. Heck, they might still not win at all.
The Right Five
And here’s the real kicker – is either starting five even how it should be? I’m not sure we can argue against Chicago’s first three guys. Rose, Pippen and MJ are on this team, no matter how you look at it. But Rodman and Horace Grant make up the rest of the Bulls and it’s arguable, if we’re using any players from past or present, that Pau Gasol or Joakim Noah might be the better pick to fill out this starting five.
The same goes for the Lakers. As great as this rendition of their All-Time team looks, would it possibly be even better if you maximized each player at a different position to give yourself the best possible roster? After all, Lakers greats like Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain and James Worthy are left out. Could this roster be shaken up a bit to include one or more of them? That all depends who is putting the roster together and how they rank each Laker, individually.
Another beef I have with the way this argument is constructed is that even with a hypothetical, we probably should keep it somewhat realistic – especially if we’re declaring who would win in an actual matchup. With that in consideration, in what world would Shaq share the floor routinely with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? That’s two traditional centers and that’s not normally how teams role. Think about it. If we’re using them both, what stops us from using Wilt as a third center? If you conducted a random Lakers ranking, would Shaq, Wilt and Kareem not be close to the top-five?
With all of this considered, it’s possible the Lakers starting five and Bulls starting five aren’t what they should be. Because of that, it might be a joke of a debate to begin with.
Winner, Winner
Analyzing hypotheticals is a joke itself, of course, so why not pick a winner as these teams are constructed? Only a fool would ever count out a Michael Jordan team. And only a complete idiot would say that team would lose by 50. The Lakers have far more impressive star power in this showdown, however, so even by the smallest of margins, they’d be the pick.
Think the Bulls would win? Let us hear the argument in the comments below!
