Date ended: Thursday August 24thTopic: Which NBA player has had the best Career among active players?Rules: Keep it clean, No need to throw put instults and harmful remarks. You guys can just go at it unti the due date, Debate like crazy. If you both agree with the topic, See if you can prove your opponents points wrong, If you agree to the extent where there is nothing to debate about, Then say something and we will get you a new topic.Good luck.
Okay, i'll start this off. Question:Which NBA player has had the best Career among active players?Okay, my answer is going to be Shaquille O'Neal. Reason 1: 4 NBA ChampionshipsHe has 4 rings, 3 with the Lakers and 1 with the Heat. 3 of those with the Lakers were in a row. He has been the Finals MVP 3 times as well. Now in his entire career, he has averaged 25.6 ppg, 12.2rpg, 2.2bpg while shooting 56.6% from the field in the playoffs. He has played in 194 playoff games in his career. You can also say that in his Laker days, that he dominated the opposing teams. They beat the Pacers 4-2, the 76ers 4-1 and then swept the Nets 4-0. He's been to the Finals more than any other active player i believe with 6 appearences winning 4 times. One of four players in NBA history to be awarded the NBA Finals MVP three times.Joins Michael Jordan as the only players in NBA history to win three consecutive NBA Finals MVP awards.Here is a list of some of his Finals RecordsMost points scored in a 4-game series: 145 (NBA Finals 2002) Most free throws made in a 4-game series: 45 (NBA Finals 2002) Most free throws attempted in a 4-game series: 68 (NBA Finals 2002) Most blocks made in a 4-game series: 11 (NBA Finals 2002) Most blocks made in one game: 8 (NBA Finals 2001; tied with Tim Duncan and Patrick Ewing) Most free throws made in one game, half: 13 (NBA Finals 2000) Most free throws made in one game, quarter: 9 (NBA Finals 2000; tied with Allen Iverson) Most free throws attempted in one game: 39 (NBA Finals 2000) Most free throws attempted in one game, quarter: 16 (NBA Finals 2000, NBA Finals 2002) Reason 2. He's the most dominate player in the league still.Shaq is heading downhill, but still is one of the biggest and most difficult players to matchup to in the league. He is still the hardest player to game plan against. In his prime, he was the hoss of the league. He's the ONLY player ever to average 20 points and 10 rebounds a game for 13 consecutive seasons. One of three players in NBA history to reach 24,500 points, 11,000 rebounds, 2,600 assists, and 2,300 blocks in his career. Career HighsPoints-61rebounds-28assists-10blocks-15steals-5He lead the league in scoring 2 seasons averaging 29.3 and 29.7 points a game in the 1994-95 and the 1999-2000 seasons. He's also 1 of only 2 players to lead the league in FG% 9 seasons. His FG% for his career is 58%. As of the end of the 05-06 season, O'Neal has recorded 48 games of scoring 40 or more points in the regular season. As of the end of the 05-06 season, O'Neal has recorded 3 games of scoring 50 or more points.Reason3: AwardsNamed one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996 (youngest player on the list and only active player remaining from the list). NBA Most Valuable Player: 2000 4-time NBA Champion: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006 3-time NBA Finals MVP: 2000, 2001, 2002 13-time NBA All-Star: 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 2-time NBA All-Star Game MVP: 2000, 2004 13-time All-NBA: First Team: 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 Second Team: 1995, 1999 Third Team: 1994, 1996, 1997 3-time All-Defensive: Second Team: 2000, 2001, 2003 NBA Rookie of the Year: 1993 Thats what i have for right now. I'll post more later.
Which active player has had the best career? That is an easy answer for me. It is Shaquille O'Neal. He has been the most dominant current player, and one of the greatest players to ever pick up a basketball. We know he dominated because of several reasons. His career fg% is at .580. That is more than elite and actually ranks 3rd all time in that department behind Artis Gilmore and Mark West. The next highest current player behind Shaq is Dale Davis who resides all the way back at no. 23, and at a .530 percentage. So we can see how Shaq dominates all current players in the ability to get easy buckets. I think that is a great way to prove how dominate the guy really is.Next, let's look at his inside points. That's how Shaq really thrived. It was his ability to dominate the paint. No one in this era has been able to come close to what Shaq has done in the paint. That is where he scores all his points, that's how he led his teams to championships, and that's why the Hack-a-Shaq theory was invented. It was invented to stop Shaq, because fouling him was basically the only possible way to stop the monster that is Shaquille O'Neal. Next, let's look at how good Shaq could have been if he turned out to be a good free throw shooter, or even if other players didnt foul him to stop him from dominating. If he shot say, 80% from the stripes then you are looking at the average game by Shaq being about 35 ppg. And if other players didn't foul him, it would allow him to make an even bigger mark in the paint. That pretty much shows how dominate the guy is as well.Next let's look at lifetime ppg totals. Shaq only trails Allen Iverson in lifetime ppg averages. But, I mean, come on. Everyone knows that guards generally score 30 points alot easier than big men. So, I think that Shaq's 26 ppg is generally more impressive than AI's 28 lifetime ppg. Now, no disrespect to AI because he is obviously a phenomenal scorer, and an unbelievable all around player, but I think you guys can see what I mean here. To prove the theory, there are 10 current guards or swingmen that have a career lifetime average of 20+ ppg, and only 6 big men to average more than 20 ppg for their respective careers. Also, their are four guards to average more than 23 ppg for their careers, and only 1 (Shaq) big man to average more than 23 ppg for his career. So you can sort of see the drop off there. To put it into another perspective, Shaq leads current big men in ppg by a whole 4 ppg, and 21 spots in the all time list. So that sort of shows how impressive it is for Shaq to score such a high total. And if you wantn to narrow it down even further to current centers than the dropoff 8 ppg to Alonzo Mourning and a whole 89 spots. So that might be a bit unfair because everyone knows that there has been a HUGE dropoff of talented Centers since the 90's but you could still look at that.So by now you can see how good a player Shaq is compared to all the other current superstars. Well let's look at even more categories that Shaq thrives in. He trails only Tim Duncan in rpg for active players. And that is only by a minimal margin of .3 rpg a game. Shaq's 11.7 lifetime rpg is still VERY, VERY impressive. Let's look at blocks as well. Shaq is fourth behind Dikembe Mutombo, Theo Ratliff, and Alonzo Mourning. But Shaq is obviously a much better player than Mutombo and Ratliff, and also better than Alonzo. Mutombo and Ratliff were basically block role players. Shaq being 4th is also very impressive.Now, let's look at how succesful "Shaq Teams" have been. Whenever a team gets Shaq they immediately jolt into an eilte team. He did it with the Magic, who were struggling in their early days, and he also did it with the Lakers, who weren't really going anywhere until Shaq came along and won them 3 championships. And he also did it with the Heat. In 2 years he won them a championship, and led them to the ECF. The Heat were a playoff team before Shaq came, but they were never a threat until Shaq and DWade came together. I think winning is a great way to determine great players. Bill Russell was never the most talented player on the court, but he won the Celtics games, and was a defensive mastermind so he is still considered one of the greatest to ever play. Also, look at Tom Brady. He has won the Patriots 3 championships. Peyton Manning is obviously the more skilled QB, but he is still considered greater than Peyton because of how poised he is under pressure, and how he can win games. I think that really divides the truly great players, and the good and talented players. Now, let's look at how succesful Shaq has been. Shaq has been to the Finals a whopping six times, and has won 4 championships. He was the Finals MVP of 3 of those championships, and the Heat certainly wouldnt have won if they didn't have a threat like Shaq down in the paint to attract defenders. Robert Horry has won 6 championships, but that still doesnt touch Shaq because Robert was always a role player on his championship teams and never an integral piece. None of those teams got there because of Horry, and none of them won solely because of Horry. Sure, he made some clutch shots, but he was a role player, not the leader of those squads. He was just lucky to play with a lot of great teams over his career. Shaq on the other hand was an integral piece on all of his championship teams. You will notice that he has 3 Finals MVP's. Only Tim Duncan can match that, but Shaq has been to 5 Finals, and Tim has only been to 3, and also Shaq led the Lakers to 3 straight Finals vivtories. Tim Duncan and the Spurs cannot touch the early '00 Lak's by any stretch of the imagination. Shaq is also money in the playoffs. He's averaged 26 ppg and 12 rpg on 56 percent shooting in his 194 game playoff career. Shaq has played more playoff games than any active player besides Robert Horry, who latched onto a ton of great teams. So you can tell that if you have Shaq, then you will play alot of playoff games. Also, Shaq has 10 All Star appearences and 8 All Star starts which leads current players, so that also proves that Shaq has always been among the best players.Okay, I think that is a pretty good explanation why Shaq has had the best career out of current players. Okay, it is sort of hard to disagree with any part of Colpitt's answer because I agree with most of it, but I think that he didn't right enough up on why Shaq is the greatest, and instead put down a bunch of records and stats. His explanation isnt as big as I feel it should be.'Your turn :nasty:
Winner: CB4AllStarI just felt CB4 went into more detail as to why Shaq has had the best career thus far among active NBA players. Both of you guys agreed that it was Shaq, but pjcolpitts brought up a lot of statistics, etc., without much of an explanation, whereas CB4 was able to fit in both staistics as well as explanations as to why they are impressive and contribute to Shaq having the best career among active players.
Winner- CB4AllStarOnce again, can't say any more than what BigMo said.CB4 will face the winner of the GArenas-Justice matchup.
advice to pj: don't just list stats and accomplishments. that doesn't tell us that you actually knew this. anyone could've just looked it up.
