I mean, Shaq came in the league and immediately started abusing his elders. Not stiffs, like Benoit Benjamin, but real dudes. What Shaq used to do to Ewing and Robinson was kinda disrespectful when you look back at it. My Pops used to marvel at how this young 23- or 24-year-old was manhandling men. At some point, defenders literally gave up. I've seen a few -- Dikembe Mutombo comes to mind -- that would actually look up, as if they're asking God for help. ("Help me God, for this angry, behemoth man is shattering me.") Teenagers saw that and probably thought, "I can't cope with that ... I better get an 18-footer."
No player will ever admit this. KG -- no less capable of playing center than Robinson -- would never reveal, "Man, I probably should've been a center, but that was Shaq's position and I ain't Shaq." GMs won't either. And, perhaps, maybe they don't even realize it. Maybe it's one of those shameful admissions that folks want to keep to themselves.
When I talked to an Orlando Magic insider a couple days ago, he said they had to "fool" Dwight into playing center. Curiously, and perhaps advantageously, this was right around the time Diesel started slowing down from older age and nagging injuries. I know you think it seems natural that Dwight and Andrew Bynum and Greg Oden and Hasheem Thabeet are centers but, trust me, they'd have found a way to fashion themselves as power forwards 10 years ago. Shaq was so
intimidating and punishing that he scared away rivals.
Super clanak ..realan...u potpunosti se slazem.. Hakeem mi je uvijek bio no.1 centar al ovo je nesto...bijesno
Pise i o tome kako su lozili Howarda da igra centra, u vrijeme dok je Shaq vukao povrede..a projicirano je bilo da zapocne na poziciji 4 i mnogi so called centri su odjednom postajli pozicja 4.."Power forward"
That's going to be Shaq's legacy. Unlike Wilt, he dominated in an era of dominant big men. He dominated so much that he made some change position, others just "quit and complain." It's what he did.