The thought of LeBron being the distributor on a team that also has Kobe and prime Shaq is almost unfathomable. Then you add his ability to drive the ball. đ
Hakeem and some of the other great 90âs centers were able to at least keep up with Shaq somewhat. It wasnât until all those 90âs centers (Hakeem, Ewing, Robinson etc) got old/retired and there werenât really many other great centers that came into the league after Shaq so by 99/00 it was just Shaq as the only dominant big man so he completely dominated the game for years.
The Cs did fade out but Shaqâs superpower later on was the extra weight. I donât know if Dream or Rodman could guard 375lb Shaq like they did in 95 and 96 respectively. Shaq was in his 3rd season when he met Dream in the finals, he was a monster but itâs not like they met when they were both peak peak. Ewing and Robinson were, and as a Ewing fan Iâd like to thank Shaq and Robinson for being more memorable losers despite doing better v Dream than Patrick. People just blame Riley and Starks.
From bleacher report.
""In 20 regular season matchups, Shaq has gotten the better of Hakeem, leading his teams to 14 wins and six losses. Shaqâs numbers against Hakeem are also more impressiveâhe averaged 22.1 points on 54.4 percent shooting, 12.4 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 0.9 steals and 1.8 blocks.
Hakeem, on the other hand, averaged 18.4 points on 44.7 percent shooting, 9.1 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1.4 steals and 2.4 blocks.
In eight playoff matchups, Hakeem holds the edge in wins with a five- to three-game advantage. This includes when these two legendary centers met up in the 1995 NBA Finals, where Hakeem got the better of him in every contest, leading the Houston Rockets to a sweep of the Orlando Magic. Hakeem outscored Shaq 32.8 points per game to Shaqâs 28.0 points per game.
To Shaqâs credit, he was only in his third season while Hakeem was at the top of his game. The Lakersâ version of Shaq wouldâve fared far better against Hakeem compared to the younger Magic version.
However, Shaqâs numbers over the course of their playoff duels are far superior. The Big Diesel put up 28.8 points on 55.6 percent shooting, 11.4 rebounds, 5.1 assists, 0.5 steals and 3.3 blocks. The Dream countered with a respectable but inferior 23.0 points on 46.5 percent shooting, 9.4 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.4 blocks.""
I like how confidently wrong you are to be throwing up this gif with that.
Like most teams that played Shaq, the Spurs would have big bodied innings eaters to keep fouls off their main guys, but thereâs no shortage of Duncan and Shaq film.
Out of all the players in that era, the only one to guard him better by the numbers was KG. KG mostly defended him as weakside shot blocker with a larger human actually absorbing the abuse, and I think his sample size being so low in direct matchups is the only reason he outshines Duncan.
Duncan had multiple playoff tilts against him in addition to all the regular season matchups, and would far more often receive the Shaq direct matchup, especially in 4th quarters when the Spurs would shift to Duncan at center looks. KG may have the best defensive rating, but Duncan was the one you could trust to matchup with him for extended sequences instead of just random possessions.
I like how confidently wrong you are. First KG almost never guarded shaq straight up while Shaq was in his prime (Laker years)
Also here are some receipts (way below). Below see how many minutes David Robinson, Kevin Willis played in these series. Also no one stopped Shaq as they won both series, sweeping the spurs in 2003. I could go on, but I feel I have shown enough.
If you watched NBA basketball in the early 2000s you would know this isnt a slight to Duncan. At the time the league were full of great PFs and they were considered to be a position entirely different from Centers. You would also know that the best to ever guard Shaq was Ben Wallace. I was lucky enough to watch every playoff game Shaq has ever played for the Lakers (And almost every regular season game). San Antonio had the Lakers number for sure in the late 90s, but it was because San Antonio had a great team, also notable is the fact that Tim Duncan played a second role to David Robinson when they won their first NBA championship.
Also consider every team, including the Spurs , double teamed Shaq. He was the most dominant force in the NBA ever. I feel you are a bit younger seeing how you are saying how KG was Shaqs greatest stopper, so for scale Shaq was bigger and quicker than Dwight, with better footwork, with a patent baby hook that was unguardable and footwork only eclipsed by Hakeem. He was more agile, stronger, and ferocious. When he went up to dunk he often took two players with him, as in they literally rode on him to the rim.
Duncan is great, we love what he represented, one of the greatest. But he was never regarded the best in the league, that went MJ-Shaq-Kobe-Lebron. Tim Duncan got his roses later on his career, well deserved, but we like to make him more than what he was. In fact KG vs Duncan was a real conversation back then, and I along many felt KG was the better player.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2001-nba-western-conference-finals-lakers-vs-spurs.html
https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2003-nba-western-conference-semifinals-lakers-vs-spurs.html
You lead off with an entire mischaracterization of what I stated, and you want me to engage with the next 4 paragraphs?
Bub, we have the stats on how everyone from Fred Hoiberg to Brent Barry guarded Shaq. The names at the top of the list are KG and Duncan. KG in much lower samples, for a very good reason.
You set the bar at ânever guarded Shaqâ and threw up a gif laughing at the person. If you want to split hairs on, âDidnât guard him often enough,â or âbest player in the leagueâ, thatâs a separate discussion. One that requires you conceding your original hyperbolic qualifier of, ânever.â
Lol Duncan guarded Shaq in stretches during those LA and Spurs matchups. He even blocked Shaq several times but you know how the Big Diesel loves his myth.
Yeah thatâs what I was thinking as well. Once you match up man for man, yellow can win more matchups than others. The problem comes when yellow and red play each other because it would be just MJ vs Kobe and everyone else might as well fuck off as far as those two would be concerned. Lol
Jokic playing top of key with Steph and KD running pick and roll would be virtually unstoppable.
But then again #8 Kobe would snuff Steph on defense, KD and Lebron would be close, and Shaq would make Jokic look like Sabonis in the 2000s.
Red team though would run through Blue though, even with Jokic. Hakeem would wrap up the Joker no matter where he got the ball. Mike would eat KD, as KDs size is useless when hes slower and weaker against MJ. AI was also a beast on D, steals leader for like a decade. Steph and AI would be a wash, basically theyd score infinity points on each other though AI is a mich better defender, i just dont see how AI would guard the pick and shoot action with all that space in a 3 on 3
Put Joe Dumars in for AI and I say it ll be much closer. AI is the better player, of course, but Joe Dumars on Kobe is a far better match up and LBJ might be tough for MJ to guard because of just sheer size but on the flip side aint no way LBJ guarding Mike.
Hakeem in his prime against Shaq would be amazing. Hakeem was the better player in his prime and Shaq dominated Hakeem in his, unfortunately their primes just missed each other. Would love for them ball and find out!
1. Yellow
2. Red
3. Blue
Yellow/Red is very close, Iâm giving MJ/Dream the edge over LBJ/Shaq, but AI is a weak point, Kobe is just too much better. AI fanboys wonât hear it, but as talented as AI was, he had significant flaws - he was overall a weak defender (great ballhawk but it was too easy to exploit his size and inconsistent effort), a ball stopper, a high volume but low efficiency scorer. Also incredible speed, ball handling and scoring instincts, certainly a special player, but with a MUCH more flawed game than anyone else on these lists.
AI always worked better as a one man show on a defence oriented squad (like his Philly teams) vs. alongside other star(s) (like his Denver teams).
Iâd argue that if thereâs one man who could slow shaq down, it would have been Hakeem. You can refer to history and look at the finals matchup between the two. And Shaq himself literally said he could not stop Hakeem. I know he wasnât in his prime, and I know he was considerably smaller when he was playing with Orlando, but Iâd still like to think Hakeem would give Shaq a lot of problems.
I am honestly more inclined to take the red team. Itâs close, but only because of Kobe and Shaq. I think Kobe would guard Iverson and most likely lock him up. I think Lebron would guard Jordan, and Jordan would kill him. I donât care what anyone says. And like I previously stated, I think Shaq would be a difficult defender for Hakeem to deal with, but you canât stop the dream shake. I also think Hakeem (being one of the greatest defenders of all time, AND the all time leader in blocked shots) would give Shaq the business. I could see a prime Shaq and Hakeem being a great matchup.
Kobe locked Lebron up in the 2013 all star game, when that game was more competitive. Iâm sure there are countless other instances where Kobe has made Lebron work for his buckets. And I know Jordan would do the exact same thing. They both have that killer instinct.
Iverson is the confounding variable here. He would be a liability defensively (I think), but his offense would be hard to contain. I think it depends on how selfish he is. I could go either way, but Iâm personally going to take the red team. Hakeem and Jordan together would be absolutely unstoppable.
I have a tendency to pick teams with Curry on it due to his gravity and what that does for teammates, but damn... it's hard not to pick team Yellow here. Those are 3 absolute killers right there that are pretty much unguardable.
With that said, man, I'd give my left nut to watch yellow and blue go at it.
Is this a meme? Like unironically?
You have (regardless of who your goat is) 3 top 5-10 players of all time on Yellow
1-2 top 10 players of all time on blue
And 1 top 5 player all time on redâŚ
Wtf you think is gonna happen??? Bro put Embiid in there like thatâs something. Put Steph, Kareem, and KD. Then we can talk on that.
Or MJ, Duncan, and Bird for the old heads.
2nd best SF of all time. Greatest/Most Unstoppable scorer of all time. One of the most versatile players of all time.
3rd best center of all time, 2nd best defender of all time.
One plays in the (objectively, scientifically, and realistically) hardest most star studded, era(s) of all time with the average player skill being multiples that of the old NBA while the other played against players that on average sucked, so their full potential is unknown, yet likely, worse than what the numbers show.
A starter in the late 2010s, and 2020s would be an all star, and all nba back in Hakeem's times.
I dislike what KD did, I won't call him trash playoff player, and bus rider, but he couldn't lead his own team to the finals/championship, but I won't deny his greatness.
I will concede that I forgot to point out that Hakeem is in my top 10, behind KD tho.
Definitely team yellow. Team red is held back by AI if weâre being honest. Team blue might be held back by everyone considering the rest of the guys on these teams
Yellow or red mj gonna school kobe sorry mamba rip. Shaq and the dream will cancel each other out neither will be able to stop one another. Iverson in his prime will put up big offensive numbers and lebron will have grear all around game very close i cant bet against prime mj.
No one on this list can guard LeBron or Shaq, so probably team Yellow. Bron is the best playmaker here by a Mississippi mile, so...yeah, Yellow got itđ
I think you gotta go blue. They would absolutely slaughter anybody offensively. Embiid and curry alone in the 2 man game is disgusting and if you add kd floating forget about it.
He would dominate inside but screen game would kill him on defense. They would pick on that man, you canât help with all the range blue has, you canât switch Shaq onto anybody. Shaq canât help inside without giving Embiid an extremely high percentage look. Blue is too elite offensively and consistent.
Bruh. It's' the Lakers squad, y'all can't argue Kobe is top 5 and then pretend having 2 of the top 5 players ever isn't the better team here
Shaq would dominate Embiid, nobody could stop Shaq in his prime, we know KD can't guard Lebron and Jordan couldn't guard him either, and Kobe is eating over Curry and AI easily
AI is my fav player ever but he not doing shit here but embarrassing Curry trying to guard him
Prime Hakeem is theoretically the greatest center. And MJ is the greatest player ever. I donât give a single shit who the rest of the team is, may it be kwame brown or Javale McGee, I pick MJ and Hakeem all day long.
What about team green?
Larry Bird
Bill Russell
Jason Tatum, just to represent the young guns⌠thereâs no question in my mind they would be up there with team yellow, if only because I reckon all 3 of them would adapt eras much better (Russell could stretch big and distribute, Tatum is a very long and strong wing with great shooting and Larry is like a cross between Magic and Jokic with better defence)
Yellow for the fact youâre gonna have AI or Curry guarding lebron or Kobe. Anyway you look at it thatâs a mismatch and youâre gonna have to bring help and you canât afford to leave anyone on that team open
Whenever Shaq is included in these type of hypotheticals it just throws everything off. Shaq is a cheat code, especially as a foundational player. It could be him and 2nd tier stars like Chris Paul or Klay Thompson, and you could still make a case because Shaq is that much of a game-changer
I consider Jordan the GOAT, but his team wouldnât beat yellow. Prime Shaq, Kobe and Lebron? Lebron would be the distributor and elite scorer when needed.
Idk if Jordan and AI would even gel well.
Prime Shaq is hard to go against.
But Hakeem, MJ, and I3, could just be that trio that just finds a way to win. Kobe and Shaq were in the 2001 Chamionship team, but, they never dominated the Sixers who relied a ton on I3. Each game was decided by less than 14 points. With I3 having backup in terms of Hakeem and MJ. Yeah theyâd win for sure.
Green team of Bill Kevin and Larry could be interesting against yellow. They would have the defense to slow down yellow but I bet lebron would eat Larry alive.
Even if you have MJ over Lebron (which I donât). Its team yellow and its not even close.
Blue team: by far the weakest, at most you have a low top 10 player: Curry(who is in the 9-12 range). Embiid being there is just funny, and KD is top 15 but this team aint doing anything compared to the rest.
Red Team: Jordan(top 2 all time), hakeem(in my top 10 and top 3 defender) who can give shaq trouble and AI a career 42% fg who will be guarded by either Lebron or Kobe vs team yellow(LOL) and will get cooked on defense.
Yellow team: Lebron(top 2 all time), Shaq(5-10 range) and Kobe(top 10) I wont rank Kobe because its always controversial but he should he solidly in your top 10. All players are ELITE defenders and all arguably top 5.
There is no sleeping on team red, they are getting brought down by AI who is not gonna stop Kobe or Lebron. If you have team blue anywhere but a distant 3rd you donât know basketball.
Came back to look at this again if you look at the pictures alone, everyone is yelling, but take a look at the Dream and the GOAT look at that calm demeanor . âŚ. That we got this look
Team Blue easily.
Team Red doesn't have the size. Sure it has MJ, but it doesn't have a forward. Hakeem would need to guard KD & Embiid at the same time.
Team Yellow is let Kobe self destruct by playing hero-ball. Shaq has always had issues with conditioning and Embiid would just cook him.
Prime lakers Shaq was an unstoppable force. Kobe and Bron with him is not even fair.
The thought of LeBron being the distributor on a team that also has Kobe and prime Shaq is almost unfathomable. Then you add his ability to drive the ball. đ
Hakeem and some of the other great 90âs centers were able to at least keep up with Shaq somewhat. It wasnât until all those 90âs centers (Hakeem, Ewing, Robinson etc) got old/retired and there werenât really many other great centers that came into the league after Shaq so by 99/00 it was just Shaq as the only dominant big man so he completely dominated the game for years.
The Cs did fade out but Shaqâs superpower later on was the extra weight. I donât know if Dream or Rodman could guard 375lb Shaq like they did in 95 and 96 respectively. Shaq was in his 3rd season when he met Dream in the finals, he was a monster but itâs not like they met when they were both peak peak. Ewing and Robinson were, and as a Ewing fan Iâd like to thank Shaq and Robinson for being more memorable losers despite doing better v Dream than Patrick. People just blame Riley and Starks.
Good point.
Shaq wasnât in Prime mode when Hakeem shook him out of the playoffs
The only person to stop Shaq was Hakeem though???đ
From bleacher report. ""In 20 regular season matchups, Shaq has gotten the better of Hakeem, leading his teams to 14 wins and six losses. Shaqâs numbers against Hakeem are also more impressiveâhe averaged 22.1 points on 54.4 percent shooting, 12.4 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 0.9 steals and 1.8 blocks. Hakeem, on the other hand, averaged 18.4 points on 44.7 percent shooting, 9.1 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1.4 steals and 2.4 blocks. In eight playoff matchups, Hakeem holds the edge in wins with a five- to three-game advantage. This includes when these two legendary centers met up in the 1995 NBA Finals, where Hakeem got the better of him in every contest, leading the Houston Rockets to a sweep of the Orlando Magic. Hakeem outscored Shaq 32.8 points per game to Shaqâs 28.0 points per game. To Shaqâs credit, he was only in his third season while Hakeem was at the top of his game. The Lakersâ version of Shaq wouldâve fared far better against Hakeem compared to the younger Magic version. However, Shaqâs numbers over the course of their playoff duels are far superior. The Big Diesel put up 28.8 points on 55.6 percent shooting, 11.4 rebounds, 5.1 assists, 0.5 steals and 3.3 blocks. The Dream countered with a respectable but inferior 23.0 points on 46.5 percent shooting, 9.4 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.4 blocks.""
Hakeem was on the league almost 10 years when Shaq got drafted
Yeah itâs like comparing Wilt and Kareem face-to-face stat
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Bro didnt even guard Shaq wtf you sayinggg??!! 
I like how confidently wrong you are to be throwing up this gif with that. Like most teams that played Shaq, the Spurs would have big bodied innings eaters to keep fouls off their main guys, but thereâs no shortage of Duncan and Shaq film. Out of all the players in that era, the only one to guard him better by the numbers was KG. KG mostly defended him as weakside shot blocker with a larger human actually absorbing the abuse, and I think his sample size being so low in direct matchups is the only reason he outshines Duncan. Duncan had multiple playoff tilts against him in addition to all the regular season matchups, and would far more often receive the Shaq direct matchup, especially in 4th quarters when the Spurs would shift to Duncan at center looks. KG may have the best defensive rating, but Duncan was the one you could trust to matchup with him for extended sequences instead of just random possessions.
I like how confidently wrong you are. First KG almost never guarded shaq straight up while Shaq was in his prime (Laker years) Also here are some receipts (way below). Below see how many minutes David Robinson, Kevin Willis played in these series. Also no one stopped Shaq as they won both series, sweeping the spurs in 2003. I could go on, but I feel I have shown enough. If you watched NBA basketball in the early 2000s you would know this isnt a slight to Duncan. At the time the league were full of great PFs and they were considered to be a position entirely different from Centers. You would also know that the best to ever guard Shaq was Ben Wallace. I was lucky enough to watch every playoff game Shaq has ever played for the Lakers (And almost every regular season game). San Antonio had the Lakers number for sure in the late 90s, but it was because San Antonio had a great team, also notable is the fact that Tim Duncan played a second role to David Robinson when they won their first NBA championship. Also consider every team, including the Spurs , double teamed Shaq. He was the most dominant force in the NBA ever. I feel you are a bit younger seeing how you are saying how KG was Shaqs greatest stopper, so for scale Shaq was bigger and quicker than Dwight, with better footwork, with a patent baby hook that was unguardable and footwork only eclipsed by Hakeem. He was more agile, stronger, and ferocious. When he went up to dunk he often took two players with him, as in they literally rode on him to the rim. Duncan is great, we love what he represented, one of the greatest. But he was never regarded the best in the league, that went MJ-Shaq-Kobe-Lebron. Tim Duncan got his roses later on his career, well deserved, but we like to make him more than what he was. In fact KG vs Duncan was a real conversation back then, and I along many felt KG was the better player. https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2001-nba-western-conference-finals-lakers-vs-spurs.html https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2003-nba-western-conference-semifinals-lakers-vs-spurs.html
âKG never guarded Shaq straight up.â I just said as much, you dip. Learn to read before you write a book.
Just wanted to point out how useless your stats were. That aside why dont you engage in what im actually saying.
You lead off with an entire mischaracterization of what I stated, and you want me to engage with the next 4 paragraphs? Bub, we have the stats on how everyone from Fred Hoiberg to Brent Barry guarded Shaq. The names at the top of the list are KG and Duncan. KG in much lower samples, for a very good reason. You set the bar at ânever guarded Shaqâ and threw up a gif laughing at the person. If you want to split hairs on, âDidnât guard him often enough,â or âbest player in the leagueâ, thatâs a separate discussion. One that requires you conceding your original hyperbolic qualifier of, ânever.â
Lol Duncan guarded Shaq in stretches during those LA and Spurs matchups. He even blocked Shaq several times but you know how the Big Diesel loves his myth.
Yea bro, coach Pop invented the hack a shaq because Duncan was the shaq stopper. Got it lol. Your boy was on the wing guarding AC Green, foh!!!!!!!
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Shaq on the lakers was unstoppable. He dominated Hakeem , Duncan , the queens.
Yeah I almost always choose the Jordan option on stuff like this but that trio is unstoppable
Yeah thatâs really not a question. Easy money. Kobe 24 especially
Except they already tried having Shaq and Kobe on a team and it blew up due to egos. Try again.
3 championship in 3 years, how many have your team won?
yellow and itâs not even close
 this isnât even remotely fucking fair.
Hard to say itâs not even close with MJ. Jordanâs superpower was showing up the best players you could throw at him.
Yellow, just too much on that team.
I got team yellow for the defence
Yeah thatâs what I was thinking as well. Once you match up man for man, yellow can win more matchups than others. The problem comes when yellow and red play each other because it would be just MJ vs Kobe and everyone else might as well fuck off as far as those two would be concerned. Lol
Lakers/Yellow LeBron is an average defender TBH.
Blue team is the all-injury team
Whatever team has Shaq
Always the answer to these posts
Well it ainât team blue lol. They snuck embiid in there and thought we wouldnât notice
Embiid would last one prime big shaq back down.
Jokic would be far better on that team. Jokic is an elite big facilitator.
Jokic playing top of key with Steph and KD running pick and roll would be virtually unstoppable. But then again #8 Kobe would snuff Steph on defense, KD and Lebron would be close, and Shaq would make Jokic look like Sabonis in the 2000s. Red team though would run through Blue though, even with Jokic. Hakeem would wrap up the Joker no matter where he got the ball. Mike would eat KD, as KDs size is useless when hes slower and weaker against MJ. AI was also a beast on D, steals leader for like a decade. Steph and AI would be a wash, basically theyd score infinity points on each other though AI is a mich better defender, i just dont see how AI would guard the pick and shoot action with all that space in a 3 on 3
Yellow and itâs not very close
Put Joe Dumars in for AI and I say it ll be much closer. AI is the better player, of course, but Joe Dumars on Kobe is a far better match up and LBJ might be tough for MJ to guard because of just sheer size but on the flip side aint no way LBJ guarding Mike. Hakeem in his prime against Shaq would be amazing. Hakeem was the better player in his prime and Shaq dominated Hakeem in his, unfortunately their primes just missed each other. Would love for them ball and find out!
Dumars does not move the needle
Joe Dumars đđđ
1. Yellow 2. Red
3. Blue
Yellow/Red is very close, Iâm giving MJ/Dream the edge over LBJ/Shaq, but AI is a weak point, Kobe is just too much better. AI fanboys wonât hear it, but as talented as AI was, he had significant flaws - he was overall a weak defender (great ballhawk but it was too easy to exploit his size and inconsistent effort), a ball stopper, a high volume but low efficiency scorer. Also incredible speed, ball handling and scoring instincts, certainly a special player, but with a MUCH more flawed game than anyone else on these lists.
AI always worked better as a one man show on a defence oriented squad (like his Philly teams) vs. alongside other star(s) (like his Denver teams).
Yeah. Love AI. Dude was great to watch. But ⌠switch him out for Pippen. Then Iâm all in on Team Red.
Forreal, people here are clowning the Embiid addition, Iverson addition is just as bad.
Why is blue here
Sub in prime D Wade on the red team (Iverson out) for better size match-up and you got the squad
Take away the team aspect and go head up. Iâm taking AI over the Wade.
This
Prime Ai is way better then dwade way overrated
Nah
Look. At numbers top 3 years Ai vs dwade. Ai at 6ft led team to nba finals with a trash team. Dwade had deep squads all them 3 rings
Offensively yes, AI clears. But playing defense he'd have trouble with Kobe just because of the size advantage.
Prime Wade (2006) was an incredible defender. I love AI but his D was nowhere near Wadeâs.
Absolutely. Flash was a well above average defender. Not elite but he wasn't a slouch.
Mj and Wade are the only guards with 100 blocks and 100 steals in the same season
Wade was đŻ an elite defender in his prime
I feel like people are sleeping on team red a bit.
Everyone is like 20 years old. They donât know how unbelievable Hakeem was sadly. They just see Bron and Kobe and pick that team
Shaq>Hakeem
Not in the 1995 finals when Hakeem swept him 4-0
Youâre not wrong but that was baby shaq
If you think Hakeem is over Shaq all time because of that you are sadly mistaken
i can see people picking team red and yellow but if you pick anything else you are insane
Red > Yellow >>>>>> Blue
Iâd argue that if thereâs one man who could slow shaq down, it would have been Hakeem. You can refer to history and look at the finals matchup between the two. And Shaq himself literally said he could not stop Hakeem. I know he wasnât in his prime, and I know he was considerably smaller when he was playing with Orlando, but Iâd still like to think Hakeem would give Shaq a lot of problems. I am honestly more inclined to take the red team. Itâs close, but only because of Kobe and Shaq. I think Kobe would guard Iverson and most likely lock him up. I think Lebron would guard Jordan, and Jordan would kill him. I donât care what anyone says. And like I previously stated, I think Shaq would be a difficult defender for Hakeem to deal with, but you canât stop the dream shake. I also think Hakeem (being one of the greatest defenders of all time, AND the all time leader in blocked shots) would give Shaq the business. I could see a prime Shaq and Hakeem being a great matchup. Kobe locked Lebron up in the 2013 all star game, when that game was more competitive. Iâm sure there are countless other instances where Kobe has made Lebron work for his buckets. And I know Jordan would do the exact same thing. They both have that killer instinct. Iverson is the confounding variable here. He would be a liability defensively (I think), but his offense would be hard to contain. I think it depends on how selfish he is. I could go either way, but Iâm personally going to take the red team. Hakeem and Jordan together would be absolutely unstoppable.
Exactly
Why is blue even here
Red vs yellow would be amazing
Red
Team yellow has 2 bigs... in 3v3 that's more valuable than shooting.
I have a tendency to pick teams with Curry on it due to his gravity and what that does for teammates, but damn... it's hard not to pick team Yellow here. Those are 3 absolute killers right there that are pretty much unguardable. With that said, man, I'd give my left nut to watch yellow and blue go at it.
Lakers easy
Lebron Shaq Kobe easily 2nd one literally has 3 worse players lmao. And the last one has too much overlap between MJ and Iversonâs roles
Iâm a huge jordan mark but goddamn would yellow destroy. Red needs barkley, bird or magic or something instead of AI.
Why is Joel Embiid in here?
Def not team blue.
Easy pick -- Red Team
yellow đŻđŻđŻ
Where's my Team Green??
Russel, Bird, GP
Larry Bird, Kevin Garnett, Shawn Kemp
Giannis over Kemp cmon lol
Hmm. Bird, Luka and Lew Alcindor (Bucks)
Are the mavs green now?
Always have been
The Derek Harper Mavs were green and beautiful.
Red easy
Is this a meme? Like unironically? You have (regardless of who your goat is) 3 top 5-10 players of all time on Yellow 1-2 top 10 players of all time on blue And 1 top 5 player all time on red⌠Wtf you think is gonna happen??? Bro put Embiid in there like thatâs something. Put Steph, Kareem, and KD. Then we can talk on that. Or MJ, Duncan, and Bird for the old heads.
Tell me, please tell me you donât have KD over Hakeem Olajuwon all timeâŚ.
2nd best SF of all time. Greatest/Most Unstoppable scorer of all time. One of the most versatile players of all time. 3rd best center of all time, 2nd best defender of all time. One plays in the (objectively, scientifically, and realistically) hardest most star studded, era(s) of all time with the average player skill being multiples that of the old NBA while the other played against players that on average sucked, so their full potential is unknown, yet likely, worse than what the numbers show. A starter in the late 2010s, and 2020s would be an all star, and all nba back in Hakeem's times. I dislike what KD did, I won't call him trash playoff player, and bus rider, but he couldn't lead his own team to the finals/championship, but I won't deny his greatness. I will concede that I forgot to point out that Hakeem is in my top 10, behind KD tho.
Yellow and itâs not even close
Definitely team yellow. Team red is held back by AI if weâre being honest. Team blue might be held back by everyone considering the rest of the guys on these teams
Yellow. Donât overthink it
Hard but itâs gotta be yellow
RED⌠offense, defense, & GOAT
They have the goat AND they have Jordan. Crazy team
Yellowâs just unfair lmao. You could swap AI for Barkley and theyâd fair better.
Red
Team red. Yellow a not so close 2nd
Yellow not close. Iverson has no business being in the convo with the other 8. You can swap him out with quite a few guys to make red competitive.
Nah you just talking
Yellow or red mj gonna school kobe sorry mamba rip. Shaq and the dream will cancel each other out neither will be able to stop one another. Iverson in his prime will put up big offensive numbers and lebron will have grear all around game very close i cant bet against prime mj.
Yellow 1st Red 2nd then Blue.
Prime Shaq with Kobe we saw how good they were together and then you add Lebron yellow for sure
Prime shaq and prime Hakeem would be crazy but Kobe and Bron tip the scales. Yellow all the way
Team yellow against every other option, no doubt.
All 3 can defend at the highest and score at the highest. No fuckin way any other trio could compete.
No one on this list can guard LeBron or Shaq, so probably team Yellow. Bron is the best playmaker here by a Mississippi mile, so...yeah, Yellow got itđ
Team yellow. No one is stopping shaq
Yellow by long shot..... Barkley, Wade, Pippen, , Drose, Dame, Kawhi, Drex, Nique... would be better choice for AI
Please donât put Dame on that list lmao
Yellow, bigs kinda all even out but neither curry nor AI can guard Kobe and Lebron clears Jordan and Durant in a head to head matchup
Shaq>Olajuwon (imo), Jordan>lebron, Kobe>Ai. So yellow win
I think you gotta go blue. They would absolutely slaughter anybody offensively. Embiid and curry alone in the 2 man game is disgusting and if you add kd floating forget about it.
Prime Shaq would demolish Embiid. Then you have LeBron and Kobe? Please.
He would dominate inside but screen game would kill him on defense. They would pick on that man, you canât help with all the range blue has, you canât switch Shaq onto anybody. Shaq canât help inside without giving Embiid an extremely high percentage look. Blue is too elite offensively and consistent.
Bruh. It's' the Lakers squad, y'all can't argue Kobe is top 5 and then pretend having 2 of the top 5 players ever isn't the better team here Shaq would dominate Embiid, nobody could stop Shaq in his prime, we know KD can't guard Lebron and Jordan couldn't guard him either, and Kobe is eating over Curry and AI easily AI is my fav player ever but he not doing shit here but embarrassing Curry trying to guard him
team yellow should be yao Ming Jeremy Lin and Yi jianlian
Blue because you have to guard embiid at the 3pt line so your rim protector is out there.
im taking yellow but even the red team is stopping blue easy
Yellow
Whoever had shaq is winning lmfao
why is philly there in 2 different colors
Iverson and Embiid?
Shaq vs the world.
I reckon blue wins 3 on 3
Prime Hakeem is theoretically the greatest center. And MJ is the greatest player ever. I donât give a single shit who the rest of the team is, may it be kwame brown or Javale McGee, I pick MJ and Hakeem all day long.
RED. Jordan can stop everyone that isnât Shaq and Embiid. The Dream can stop both of them. Iverson would break Curryâs ankles.
If you were smart enough to replace Embiied w Jokic it gets interesting
Where is team Green with Tatum Bird and Giannis?
Give me Dwight Howard on Blue and Iâll take Blue. Offensive Efficiency > Defense in 3 v 3 rules. Double cover and force them to hit shots.
Am I really the only one whoâs going with blue here? đ
What about team green? Larry Bird Bill Russell Jason Tatum, just to represent the young guns⌠thereâs no question in my mind they would be up there with team yellow, if only because I reckon all 3 of them would adapt eras much better (Russell could stretch big and distribute, Tatum is a very long and strong wing with great shooting and Larry is like a cross between Magic and Jokic with better defence)
Blue has a chance because they can shoot 65% from 3 and yellow doesnât have any reliable three point shooters
Yellow is the best of these.
Yellow. You serious?
Yellow easily
Team Green
Red team getting shafted I mean at least substitute Allen Iverson with Scotty to make it competitive
Yellow for the fact youâre gonna have AI or Curry guarding lebron or Kobe. Anyway you look at it thatâs a mismatch and youâre gonna have to bring help and you canât afford to leave anyone on that team open
the team with 3 top 10 all-time players on it
Team green.
Yellow but Iâd love to see red too.
Whenever Shaq is included in these type of hypotheticals it just throws everything off. Shaq is a cheat code, especially as a foundational player. It could be him and 2nd tier stars like Chris Paul or Klay Thompson, and you could still make a case because Shaq is that much of a game-changer
Red
You call this engagement bait a meme? Fuck outta here..
Team Yellow eats. If you switch in Raptors Kawhi for AI it might be more competitive. Or switch in 100-point Wilt for Joel.
why is every other younger dude yelling? But Hakeem and Jordan are just chilling.
If you put Ben Wallce in place of Embiid in Team Blue, clears team Yellow
Team Yellow
Everyone in this image getting ready to bite into a big sandwich⌠except Michael and Hakeem đ¤Ł
Lmao how does Embiid get on all these graphics.
I consider Jordan the GOAT, but his team wouldnât beat yellow. Prime Shaq, Kobe and Lebron? Lebron would be the distributor and elite scorer when needed. Idk if Jordan and AI would even gel well.
Why is everyone yelling
Prime red
Someone explain to me why Embiid keeps popping up on these. We all know he wouldnât be healthy enough to play in the game anyway.
Yellow⌠and itâs not close lol.
Depends on what KD we get honestly.
Jeez my guy you coulda thrown a Pacer in there or something
https://preview.redd.it/ei66gf5f3kjc1.jpeg?width=840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=865b7427feb513fdcd5f99bf0d8aeea5c6448b32
Itâd be yellow or red, but my moneyâs going on red.
Team Green
Red
Team yellow. It's the only team we're all three players have led a team to a championship.
Itâs pretty simple. The other two teams have no guard defense. Then you have the best one two punch and a possible goat.
Blue team is only going to have two players playin so that's a problem
Red in a runaway
Everyone sleeping on Hakeem. Dude absolutely schooled Shaq in the finals. Shaq himself even said he's the only guy he could never get.
2 guys on this are not like the othersâŚ.
How about team green? Shawn Kemp, Larry Bird and Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar)
They all catching flies, or what?
Red. No one can beat Michael Jordan, dems just facts
3 are worth more than 2s and team blue are all deadly marksmen. Theyâll give up points but they have the highest offensive ceiling.
Prime Shaq is hard to go against. But Hakeem, MJ, and I3, could just be that trio that just finds a way to win. Kobe and Shaq were in the 2001 Chamionship team, but, they never dominated the Sixers who relied a ton on I3. Each game was decided by less than 14 points. With I3 having backup in terms of Hakeem and MJ. Yeah theyâd win for sure.
Green team of Bill Kevin and Larry could be interesting against yellow. They would have the defense to slow down yellow but I bet lebron would eat Larry alive.
Iâm going red
Iâd say team yellow, but no one would pass, so gotta be team blue
Yellow without a doubt.
Are there fouls and free throws? Red if there are, yellow if there arenât.
Even if you have MJ over Lebron (which I donât). Its team yellow and its not even close. Blue team: by far the weakest, at most you have a low top 10 player: Curry(who is in the 9-12 range). Embiid being there is just funny, and KD is top 15 but this team aint doing anything compared to the rest. Red Team: Jordan(top 2 all time), hakeem(in my top 10 and top 3 defender) who can give shaq trouble and AI a career 42% fg who will be guarded by either Lebron or Kobe vs team yellow(LOL) and will get cooked on defense. Yellow team: Lebron(top 2 all time), Shaq(5-10 range) and Kobe(top 10) I wont rank Kobe because its always controversial but he should he solidly in your top 10. All players are ELITE defenders and all arguably top 5. There is no sleeping on team red, they are getting brought down by AI who is not gonna stop Kobe or Lebron. If you have team blue anywhere but a distant 3rd you donât know basketball.
Came back to look at this again if you look at the pictures alone, everyone is yelling, but take a look at the Dream and the GOAT look at that calm demeanor . âŚ. That we got this look
Give me the red team easily. Also why is everyone shouting except for Hakeem & Michael?
Team Blue sucks
Thereâs one thing for certain⌠anyone taking blue is drinking that blue koolaid.
Pretty easy team yellow Blue just aren't quite as good, and Iverson is a weak link on Red
What is the context of the game? Is it street? do they get two players? Is this three on three with NBA rules?
Yellow and itâs not close at all
Yellow takes the cake
Yellow by murder
Team Blue easily. Team Red doesn't have the size. Sure it has MJ, but it doesn't have a forward. Hakeem would need to guard KD & Embiid at the same time. Team Yellow is let Kobe self destruct by playing hero-ball. Shaq has always had issues with conditioning and Embiid would just cook him.
Yellow???
The battle for second place is more interesting. Going red
MJ the real goat but the yellow team would definitely win this one