I've never been a big fan of Shaq. In Phil Jackson's book, The Last Season, the Zen Mistress complained that Shaq rarely paid sufficient attention to defense, rarely worked on his free throws, and rarely rehabbed his many injuries per team instructions. Fine. But you know what else he didn't do? Develop any moves outside of a raw power game. Missing from his repertoire have been a Wilt finger-roll, a Kareem sky-hook, and a Parish moon-ball jumper. Instead, what we've seen is a giant trying chuck a piece of used gum into a cylinder.
Not so with Leon Powe. He's always had a knack for finding clever ways for getting the ball into the basket from inside the paint, notwithstanding the fact that Leon typically gives up 2, 3, 4, 5 or more inches to his defenders. I say defenders (plural) because when Leon gets the ball now, he attracts a crowd. But no one who has watched Leon lately will deny that he's refined the variety and deftness in which he throws his garbage at the hoop. The angles are endless and the English is breathtaking. Last night he spun one side-armed off the top right corner of the backboard for two points.
He does this stuff all the time now. When you're throwing spin balls side-armed off the backboard, it tends to neutralize an opponent's height advantage. So for sheer artistic merit and creativity, I'm giving Leon a 10. Shaq? I'll defer to the verdict rendered by Phil above.
5 comments:
You must surely be joking.
In the big picture, yes. Shaq is better than Leon. But not on the point I made. Shaq has the exact same game he's always had-power. Of course, when you're 7 feet tall and 340 pounds you don't need to do much else.
But it still annoys me that shaq has done zilch to develop his offensive repertoire. You can't say that about Leon. So I'm just giving the Celtics agent -0- a little love.
You know, another interesting question is this: Are Shaq's purely basketball skills better than Leon's? If so, what are those skills that are better?
I'm sort of asking you to compare a heavyweight fighter v. a middleweight. Would shaq be better than leon if shaq were 6-7?
Would he be a HOFer if he were 6-7?
I love Leon. Leon gets the most of every inch of height. He gets the most of every minute he plays. Minute per minute, inch per inch, I'd take Leon.
Who knows how Shaq would be if he were 6'7? There's no point in speculating and you're kidding yourself if you think Shaq only has a power game filled with dunks. I'm just surprised you would compare a legendary player who's still one of the best at the league at age 37 to a bench player. It's like comparing Larry Bird to Kirk Hinrich and Hinrich is at least a starter.
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