Milwaukee Bucks’ All-Star Giannis Antetokounmpo is playing a career season this year, leading his team to the best record in the NBA and being a favorite for NBA MVP award. Antetokounmpo ‘s performances didn’t go unnoticed by one of basketball’s greats Shaquille O’Neal, who recently treated the Greek with some significant praise.
During his appearance on “The Big Podcast,” O’Neal said that he believes Antetokounmpo is better than he was at the age 24.
“He’s better because he has more opportunity to showcase more,” – O’Neal explained. “I was a post player, and the only thing I was allowed to showcase was my domination. He’s running the floor. I did that early, [but] I stopped doing that because I stopped getting the ball when I ran the floor, so I turned into a half-court dominant player.”
It isn’t an easy task comparing Shaquille O’Neal and Giannis Antetokounmpo considering the fact that they have played different positions and in different eras of basketball. Also, O’Neal immediately became one of the league’s stars while Antetokounmpo really set off in his third season.
When he was 24, O’Neal was in his fourth season in the league and was on average of 26.9 points, 12.4 rebounds and 2.76 blocks per game. Antetokounmpo, on the other hand, is currently on 18.7 points, 8.3 rebounds and 4.1 assists thanks to slower start of his career.
While Antetokounmpo might catch up Shaq’s numbers if he continues to play this way, there is a real doubt whether he will manage to catch him in other aspects of the game.
O’Neal was considered one of the most dominant players in basketball of all time and had an illustrious career which includes four NBA championships, 15 All-Star appearances, All-NBA First Team honors and one MVP award.
