http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/08/shaquille-oneal-thinks-julius-erving-was-the-greatest-basketball-player-ever

Shaquille O'Neal thinks Julius Erving was the greatest basketball player ever

In a recent interview with Antenna Magazine, Shaquille O’Neal offered this microwave-reheated, re-fried take to the Kobe Bryant-LeBron James debate:

“They’re different. LeBron is more of an all-around player — Hey this guy’s open, let me kick it to him. Kobe is more of, Oh, we’re down six? I’m going to shoot it three times and get us six points. But they’re both great players.”
Yes, yes. Very judicious and measured. James is the most dynamic and efficient player in the game but Bryant’s game is art. Fair.

But then Shaq went a little off-script and said that the greatest player of all time was…Julius Erving.

“To me, Dr. J was the greatest player ever. But I ask other people, they say Jordan, some say Kobe, some people say LeBron. It’s always going to be a matter of opinion.”
It might be a matter of opinion, but there’s no real basis for Shaq picking Dr. J over everyone else that’s ever played the game.

nothing new

>
>nothing new

^

FACT

seriously, is there anyone more consistently wrong than you?

just say this....most of us, okps included, DID NOT see the best of Dr. J

Who knows how high ppl would rank Doc amongst the all-time greats if he came straight to the NBA instead of going to play in the ABA

Or if Doc had won at least 3/4 of those championships he competed for - How would he rank?

You're right but lets not act like he didn't struggle in the NBA. the competition got better and Doc couldnt shoot the rock past 10ft out. Was an average defender, and often was inept on offense.. If he wasnt soaring in the air, he might as well be on the bench cus he had no midrange game.

If we're really being honest, Doc was more style than substance, and pretty much got over on that cus he was clean cut, "likeable negro" during that crack infested era of the NBA

>You're right but lets not act like he didn't struggle in the
>NBA. the competition got better and Doc couldnt shoot the rock
>past 10ft out. Was an average defender, and often was inept on
>offense.. If he wasnt soaring in the air, he might as well be
>on the bench cus he had no midrange game.

Struggled??? Really??? Earning MVP, selected to *1st team* NBA -5x, 2x 2nd team All-NBA...and he took an undermanned 76ers team to 3 finals before Moses joined the team (2x against a super talented and superior Laker squad). That's what you call struggling? If so, lots of players would love to struggle like that lol. Doc did have some limitations offensively - his jump shot was iffy (BUT HE HAD. A GREAT BANK SHOT FROM THE LEFT SIDE OF THE COURT THOUGH) - his handles were aight but he always averaged 20 pts or more in his prime, so whatever limitations he had offensively, he was still a more than capable scorer...and scorers know how to manufacture points even if they don't have a complete offensive arsenal...

>If we're really being honest, Doc was more style than
>substance,

I couldn't disagree more...the Dr.J you and most of us got to see had to alter his game when he came to the NBA, his documentary that came out last summer delved into how Gene Shue didn't want Doc to be the scorer he was in the ABA, where he led the ABA in scoring 3x, because that Philly team was (over) loaded...you can't be overrated when an entire generation of players patterned their gms after you (Jordan/Nique/Pippen/Marques Johnson)

>and pretty much got over on that cus he was clean
>cut, "likeable negro" during that crack infested era of the
>NBA

Got over? C'mon, man lolololol - let you tell it, Doc wasn't a great player at all, just a clean-cut guy who the league promoted only because of the perception of the NBA during the 70s

Have you ever seen the 77' finals w/76ers vs Portland in its entirety? If you have, you would know that his performance in those 6 gms is still to this day considered one of the best individual displays in a championship series.

>You're right but lets not act like he didn't struggle in the
>NBA. the competition got better and Doc couldnt shoot the rock
>past 10ft out. Was an average defender, and often was inept on
>offense.. If he wasnt soaring in the air, he might as well be
>on the bench cus he had no midrange game.
>
>If we're really being honest, Doc was more style than
>substance, and pretty much got over on that cus he was clean
>cut, "likeable negro" during that crack infested era of the
>NBA

There's really only a couple centers and Jordan that are clearly better. LeBron has not caught him yet, and I am a huge supporter of LeBron and big-upper of his potential. No player active today is better than the Doc IMO.

> LeBron has not caught him yet, and I am a huge
>supporter of LeBron and big-upper of his potential. No player
>active today is better than the Doc IMO.

Lebron surpassed Doc a long time ago, fam

Doc couldn't do nearly all the things could do - Bron is better in every phase of the game than Doc was...

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<---- 5....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlgiritpmfo

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But now we're so far removed from Doc's prime and the 76ers didn't even really get even the majority of that really.

He was like 27/28 when he got there and there's a severe paucity of footage from his prior career.

But Doc won two titles for a pro basketball team in NYC more recently then the Knicks have.

Yet that part of his career is treated like Negro League Baseball stats even though we have evidence there was as many great players in that league in that era as their was in the NBA during the same stretch.

Went to the Finals in year one in the NBA.

Went to three more, lost two in heartbreak fashion and swept the Lakers in another for a chip.

Won four MVPs and three scoring titles spread across the two leagues.

Played for or won a title in 7 of his first 10 years in the league.

Made the massiveness of MJ's whole career even possible.

And retired with more points on the board than anybody else besides Wilt and Kareem, who were the only two that during Doc's last couple years that anyone woulda brought up as GOAT besides Doc.

Nobody was counting rings to include Russell then.

I was really too young to truly experience his prime but of course go back to watch.

To this day he's the only Philadelphia athlete I can name who got his own city parade thrown for him when he was retiring.

I dunno what the problem is he looks at dr j as an idol, while MJ was a peer and Lebron was the lil brother just coming in the scene. This makes sense to me

I think that Doc might have been the most impactful dude in pro B-Ball, even over Cheese Eyes. He changed the discussion so that a Cheese Eyes et al could actually happen. Cheese Eyes just perfected that paradigm

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/e/ervinju01.html

Dominant player in his era, and had to go against some nasty Bucks and Celtics teams, the east was murder back then

All the GOAT talk is purely subjective to the person. It's an opinion question.