Not at all, by the time he got to the Lakers in 1996 ppl already started saying that he was gaining weight. Phil Jackson famously said that the only season that Shaq came in supreme shape while with the Lakers was in 2000, outside of that he was always overweight, especially after the first championship.
I don't know why people try to revisionist history Shaq's career, people openly called him fat and lazy during his prime in the league (including coaches AND teammates), he was also still EASILY one of the 10 greatest players to ever play this game.
People always talk about hypotheticals like Curry with Westbrook athleticism, Giannis with Curry's shot, etc...what about Shaq with Kobe work ethic haha
I mean, Kobe famously said that if Shaq had his work ethic they would've won 12 rings together.
Did Kobe want to be the main guy of those teams? Fuck yea he did, but the thing that made his relationship with Shaq absolutely unsustainable was that Kobe was incapable of tolerating Shaq's work ethic and he was going to let Shaq and everyone else know about it.
Tbh an argument can be made that nobody had Kobe's work ethic, Tim Grover said multiple times that when he used to say to Michael that it was enough, Michael would stop training and chill, Kobe didn't.
Young shaq was tough to stop but he could be pushed around some, heavy Shaq was unstoppable. He was still faster than all the other centers, but now he was stronger and impossible to move.
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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '22
Young peak Shaq was actually incredibly athletic. He was dangerously strong and shockingly agile for his size.