All U Can Heat
Fansided

Miami Heat: Let me tell you why Shaq is better than Tim Duncan

By Kenneth Wilson

Shaquille O'Neal #32 of the Miami Heat is surrounded by (L-R) Antonio McDyess #24, Ben Wallace #3, Tayshaun Prince #22 and Richard Hamilton #32 of the Detroit Pistons in Game Two of the Eastern Conference Finals during the 2005 NBA Playoffs (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images)
Shaquille O'Neal #32 of the Miami Heat is surrounded by (L-R) Antonio McDyess #24, Ben Wallace #3, Tayshaun Prince #22 and Richard Hamilton #32 of the Detroit Pistons in Game Two of the Eastern Conference Finals during the 2005 NBA Playoffs (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 3
Next
Miami Heat
Shaquille O’Neal (R) of the Miami Heat drives past Erick Dampier of the Dallas Mavericks during Game 3 of the NBA finals(ROBERT SULLIVAN/AFP via Getty Images) /

Who was better player, Miami Heat and Los Angels Lakers legend, Shaq, or San Antonio Spurs legend, Tim Duncan?

The Data

When you look at the first set of data, the numbers, they are about even.

Although, if you were scoring each category here, Shaq would win the numbers war. All of his career averages are higher, except for his assist numbers, which only show a small difference. This could be due to the fact that Tim Duncan had more talent around him in more positions, which limited his need to put up gaudy numbers.

This speaks to the fact that although none of Tim Duncan’s key teammates were individually better than some of Shaq’s greatest teammates like Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, or LeBron James, the Spurs simply had a group of elite guys to fill out a few different positions as opposed to the two main guys usually on Shaq’s teams.

That also could serve to explain things when it comes to the next category, titles. Shaq trails Tim Duncan by one title, but that could probably be explained by the depth of the talent he played with along with the consistency present in Duncan’s career. He played for one coach, one organization, and mostly won with the same groups of guys.

With the score at one apiece, titles for Timmy and stats for Shaq, the next category is honors. Both were 15-time All-Stars, three-time Finals MVPs, Rookies of the year for their respective classes, and thus on the All-Rookie teams, while Duncan led All-NBA teams by one at 15-14, and really blew Shaq out in All-Defensive teams at 15-3. Shaq led in All-Star MVP’s at 3-1, while trailing Duncan 1-2 in league MVPs for a season.

The honors there point to Tim Duncan as well. So why is Shaq the better player? It all goes like this.

Home/Heat History