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Shaquille O'Neal Says It's Time to Put NBA Superstar in GOAT Debate

It's time to take another look at the all-time greats.

Kyle Koster

Shaquille O'Neal made his case for Stephen Curry.
Shaquille O'Neal made his case for Stephen Curry. / NBA on TNT
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With Michael Jordan long retired and LeBron James's legacy pretty much fully baked, conversations and arguments about the NBA's greatest of all time have gotten a little bit stale. Shaquille O'Neal did his part to spice them up a bit by suggesting it's time to put a new name on the table for dissection.

After Stephen Curry scored 28 points in a Golden State Warriors' victory over the New York Knicks, O'Neal challenged fans to consider the sharpshooter when making their historical cases.

"As the supreme leader of the Big Man Alliance, I demand you fans to start putting Steph Curry in that greatest of all time conversation," O'Neal said during a gamebreak on TNT. "I've played against Mike, played with Kobe, played against and with LeBron, they're all great. But at some point you've got to put Steph Curry in that category."

It takes a very big man to admit that a smallish guard is one of the best ever and Shaq is, indeed, a very big man. He gave his bonafides there in terms with seeing a heck of a lot of all the players who could be in this rarified air and stated that Curry has the championship pedigree necessary to enter into the conversation.

So please, adjust your all-time big boards accordingly. It doesn't sound like O'Neal believes Curry is No. 1 in the pantheon but it'd be great if we could all throw in that the Warriors star merits consideration.

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Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

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