Here's the deal: I agree with you, Shareef Abdur-Rahim is better than Jermaine O'Neal. Like The Black Widow said, JO gets more press cause his team wins much more than the Hawks. But that's not the only reason why he's leading in votes. BUT, I personally, when having to vote between them, look at the East vs. the West, and who would fare better in the game out of the two players. Abdur-Rahim is smaller, and like you said, JO leads in rebounds and blocks, something that is conspicuously absent from most East teams. Who needs to score when you've got Vince, TMac, AI and Paul Pierce shooting the lights out? I think a lot of fans choose JO for that reason, although like I said, they choose him cause he wins too. JO is sometimes listed as a center, so that seems more appealing to have on your starting frontline than an undersized(compared to the West) 4.
I think JO is a little bit better. I mean, look at Shaq vs. Randolph. Thier stats are identical this season. Does that mean Randolph is better than Shaq?! Plus, Jermaine O'neal is on a winning team.
I think Reef is good but he doesnt make as many impact plays as J.Oneal. I can think of 2 or 3 impact plays that J. Oneal has made to help his team win a game right off the top of my head. I cant really think of any plays that reef has made. His game is way to passive. Reef is one of hose players who can score 20pts without his team running basicly no set plays for him in their offense because of his ablity to rebound on the offense boards. But a player like J.Oneal gets at least 15-20 automatic touches in the low post for the pacers. So when the General public looks or compares the 2. It seems to many that J.Oneal is the more dominate player because he is a go to type player, a franchise player. And of course we cant for get that we are comparing a Hawk to a guy on a team with 22 wins already.I like Reef but when you consider everything that surrounds the 2 players you have to say that J.Oneal is a tad bit better. And lets not forget about K-Mart in this talk about the best all-around power forward in the East talk.
JO has that great post game..which SAR doesn't have.He carries his team to wins....He at least shows up for basically the whole game.Abdur-Rahim for some reason thinks basketball is only played for 3 quarters.You can't just compare stats when deciding who is better..It's what they do for their team....leadership is a key factor in deciding these kind of debates. Abdur-Rahim is an underrated player but to be honest He isn't on O'Neal's level.
Winning gets you attention. If your teams always end up under .500 every season you have been in the NBA then you will not be noticed. Even though Reef's stats are up to par with most power fowards, the plain fact is that he hasn't ever helped his team win enough games to be considered for the all star game. Underrated? Maybe. Can he help his team make it to the playoffs? Not this year. J.O on the other hand is the best power foward in the East this year hands down. He has a good presence in the low post on offence to keep defences on their toes and he makes the difference on the defensive end in the paint. Last but not least, he wins games for his team.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting CourtVision:</div><div class="quote_post">Winning gets you attention. If your teams always end up under .500 every season you have been in the NBA then you will not be noticed. Even though Reef's stats are up to par with most power fowards, the plain fact is that he hasn't ever helped his team win enough games to be considered for the all star game. Underrated? Maybe. Can he help his team make it to the playoffs? Not this year. J.O on the other hand is the best power foward in the East this year hands down. He has a good presence in the low post on offence to keep defences on their toes and he makes the difference on the defensive end in the paint. Last but not least, he wins games for his team.</div> Yeah, Courtvision said it best. SAR is definetley one of the most underrated players in the league, but he is not on J O'neal's level. JO shows leadership on the floor, plays his heart out the whole game, and brings his team the victory's. SAR does the exact opposite, comparing stats to say who is a better player never works. Now I feel where you say he shouldn't be as low in All-Star balloting because I agree, but that's a popularity contest. <div class="quote_poster">Quoting starman85:</div><div class="quote_post">Here's the deal: I agree with you, Shareef Abdur-Rahim is better than Jermaine O'Neal. </div> MVPlaya never listed in his post that he thought SAR was better, he was just trying to start a debate on why is JO getting so much more attention than SAR.
Kukoc and Pippen shouldn't even be on the Ballot. Rahim is a great player. He would be better off with a player like Pierce, Kobe, T-Mac someone like that so he would be a secodn option. He chokes alot in the last 2 minutes of the game.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Kid Canada:</div><div class="quote_post">Kukoc and Pippen shouldn't even be on the Ballot. Rahim is a great player. He would be better off with a player like Pierce, Kobe, T-Mac someone like that so he would be a secodn option. He chokes alot in the last 2 minutes of the game.</div> Yeah, it's pretty amazing how Pippen and Kukoc are on that list. All-Star balloting is garbage.
i'm a huge JO fan and an even bigger pacers fan so i was upset at first when you even dared to put them in the same class, but the fact is, they put up basically the same #s except JO is one of the league's premier shotblockers and reef hits free throws. i've got to say that reef is underrated but i wouldn't go as far as to say that he's in the same class with JO. SAR is on a bad team making him less visible to the media and fans, but there's no way pippen should be above him on the all-star ballot. my best arguments for why JO is better have already been taken by courtvision, purple n gold, henacy and allnet so i'm done here
Shareef is not on JO's level, like allnet said, you have to compare everything..w/out JO the Pacers would be a lot worse, w/out Shareef the Hawks still would be the hawks.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Q Rich3:</div><div class="quote_post">Shareef is not on JO's level, like allnet said, you have to compare everything..w/out JO the Pacers would be a lot worse, w/out Shareef the Hawks still would be the hawks.</div> True, but he also has a terrible cast. Only other decent player is Diaw. All Terry can do is shoot. I wish they'd both move so they could truly make a difference, they're very deserving. Oh well can't choose where to go right? He works hard either way.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Magic Johnson:</div><div class="quote_post">True, but he also has a terrible cast. Only other decent player is Diaw. All Terry can do is shoot. I wish they'd both move so they could truly make a difference, they're very deserving. Oh well can't choose where to go right? He works hard either way.</div> Actually Shareef has an okay cast around him. Terry is playing worse than usual which is a negative but Rahim is playing with a above average centre in Ratliff which JO doesn't have. Diaw is quite the surprise as a rookie, expect good defence out of this guy....just no jump shot. I think coaching is also a reason why Rahim is considered so low, all of his coaches were garbage and it reflected on the teams record. Better than JO though? HEEEEELLLLL NO.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting CourtVision:</div><div class="quote_post">Actually Shareef has an okay cast around him. Terry is playing worse than usual which is a negative but Rahim is playing with a above average centre in Ratliff which JO doesn't have. Diaw is quite the surprise as a rookie, expect good defence out of this guy....just no jump shot. I think coaching is also a reason why Rahim is considered so low, all of his coaches were garbage and it reflected on the teams record. Better than JO though? HEEEEELLLLL NO.</div> I agree, there is no way he is better than J.O'neal. Although, I also agree with the fact that Shareef is underrated and I think he could be even better playing with another allstar, and a winning team. A team like Orlando might be a good start for him, playing next to T-Mac. Even the Magic can win if they had Shareef and T-Mac on the same team. I'm not saying they would make a trade or that this is likely or anything, but that's one team that I think would work for him.
