Mike Bibby has been speaking his mind, and on the subject of Shaquille O'Neal, his opinion is rock solid. The former Sacramento Kings guard declared that Shaq is the best big man to ever play basketball — a bold statement, but one that Bibby can back up with firsthand experience.
Few people had more reason to understand just how dominant Shaquille O'Neal was than the Kings players who faced him in that 2002 Western Conference Finals. Bibby was in the trenches for all of it, and watching what O'Neal did to opposing defenses night after night clearly left a lasting impression.
The debate over the greatest big man in NBA history typically involves a short list of legends — names like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, and Bill Russell are always in the conversation. But Bibby is planting his flag firmly in the Shaq camp, arguing that at his peak, nobody was more unstoppable in the paint.
O'Neal's combination of size, athleticism, power, and low-post skill was genuinely unprecedented, and his four championships across two franchises back up the case. For Bibby, who competed during the peak of Shaq's dominance, the answer seems obvious.
It's a strong take, and coming from a player who guarded against him at the highest level, it lands differently than it would from a pundit. Bibby has earned the right to make this call, and he's making it without any equivocation.
