With free agency all but dried up and NBA Summer Leagues closing up shop for the next 50 weeks, we're left with a slow period in the NBA. Down time in the NBA -- and especially in sports in general -- leaves us to our own devices and that means we start debating a lot of hypotheticals. Shaquille O'Neal and Scottie Pippen were no different than us on Monday, as Shaq posted on Instagram that the all-time Los Angeles Lakers team would smash the all-time Chicago Bulls team.
This led to a playful Instagram back-and-forth with photoshops, free-throw jokes and Shaq dropping the proverbial mic by posting a video of Shaq and Kobe Bryant completing the comeback against Pippen's Blazers team in the 2000 Western Conference finals. As great as Michael Jordan was, he probably needs more than Pippen (obviously an all-time great), Dennis Rodman, Horace Grant and Derrick Rose to take down that Lakers' lineup Shaq proposed of Magic Johnson, Kobe, Elgin Baylor, Shaq and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Respectively, the point guard and both big man positions is just too much of an advantage for the Lakers.
We would beat em by fifty "what you think". Let me know and don't hold back
A photo posted by DR. SHAQUILLE O'NEAL Ed.D. (@shaq) onJul 19, 2015 at 5:29pm PDT
While it shouldn't be a stretch to say the Bulls would lose to the Lakers in this type of hypothetical (I don't know about a 50-point loss, as Shaq suggested), because the Lakers are involved you also have to consider that the Boston Celtics would want to get in on this. A historic Celtics lineup of Bob Cousy, Paul Pierce, Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Bill Russell would give the Lakers a run for their money.
PG: Magic Johnson vs. Bob Cousy
The point guard position is going to be hard for any historical lineup to match. Magic Johnson is the greatest point guard of all-time, and he's probably significantly ahead of just about everybody, depending on how you classify Oscar Robertson (was probably more of a lead guard at the 2 position, but that's splitting hairs). For the most firepower possible, the Celtics could go with their peak version of Nate "Tiny" Archibald, but the safer pick is Cousy and his incredible distribution. He's going to get eaten alive in this matchup with Magic, but so would most guards.
SG: Kobe Bryant vs. Paul Pierce
We'd be cheating a bit by sliding Paul Pierce to the shooting guard position, but Shaq's version of the Lakers is already cheating by pretending Shaq was a power forward to slide next to Kareem. Pierce vs. Kobe is interesting because we've seen these two go at it a lot over the years and we know Pierce can hang with Bryant. Over the years, we've seen Pierce and Kobe square off on the court, and it's always been about even with the results. Pierce has scored in a similar fashion, shot far better than Kobe and matched his production everywhere else.
SF: Elgin Baylor vs. Larry Bird
At small forward, we'll probably never truly know just how great Elgin Baylor was. His exploits on the court were phenomenal, but he may have actually thrived in a later era of basketball when systems and coaches were smarter about how they maximized talents and athleticism like his. Even with that said, Larry Bird has the advantage here. LeBron James probably gives Bird a run for his money historically, but I'm still going with Bird as the greatest small forward (or maybe better classified as a tweener at the forward positions) ever. There wasn't anything he struggled to do and I'll give him the ball with the game on the line over just about everybody.
PF: Shaquille O'Neal vs. Kevin McHale
The big man positions are interesting. Shaq is one of the most dominant players we've ever seen. We saw him run through entire playoff stretches by just bullying everybody in the low block and playing off Kobe to perfection. Asking Kevin McHale to potentially guard him would be not great for the Celtics, but it's also pretty easy to say Shaq having to defend the incredible post arsenal would be problematic.
C: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar vs. Bill Russell
When we get to Bill Russell against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, it's easy to look at the scoring of Cap and wonder how Russell would stop him. Kareem is the leading scorer in NBA history and that sky hook is infamous for being impossible to stop. But we saw Russell handle Wilt Chamberlain (who could also be on this Lakers' squad) for years and while Wilt managed to score against his counterpart, Russell often ended up with the victory. That doesn't mean the same would happen against Russell, but you'd have to wonder if he could find similar success against all great scoring big men. Unfortunately, Russell retired in 1969 and Kareem joined the NBA the next season, so we don't even get a glimpse into what that matchup would've looked like.
The Lakers vs. Celtics debate could be swayed to the Lakers because of a huge advantage at the point guard position, but I like the way this Celtics team could hang. Regardless of whether this time machine experiment between the Lakers and Celtics would give us a clear answer or not, I think Boston's historical lineup would beat the Bulls' lineup as well. Now, let's fire up the DeLorean and make this happen.
