Shaquille O’Neal believes quality of NBA has gone down - Basketball News
Recently retired NBA great Shaquille O’Neal has opened up about how the game has changed since he first came to the best basketball league in the world. Shaq was of the view that more money was involved now, making the league more of a business. He also had some harsh words regarding the quality of players on display.
“Business-wise, it’s different.” Shaq said.
The NBA has much more glamour about it today. The league is marketed to a much wider audience and players make huge money not only through salary, but also by endorsing anything they can get their hands on. The likes of Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant and Miami Heat forward LeBron James earn a fortune, more than they earn through the game, through lucrative sponsorship deals.
O’Neal also pointed out the gulf in quality between different NBA teams. He said when he was playing basketball as a high school player; the NBA presented a very different picture than does today. Most teams had genuine star players and a good chance of making a charge for the NBA title.
Today the league is very different. Only a few teams have players of genuine quality, ones who are potential Hall of Famers, even fewer teams have a realistic shout of winning the Larry O’Brien Trophy. O’Neal singled out Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, Orlando Magic, New York Knicks, San Antonio Spurs, Phoenix Suns and the Miami Heat as franchises that possessed genuine stars. That only makes for a small portion of the whole league.
“When I was in high school, every team had a star and a Hall of Famer. You don’t have that now. Let’s be real: Orlando, Boston, L.A., Miami — that’s it. Maybe Memphis, the Spurs, maybe Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns and the New York Knicks. Only nine or 10 teams have a star. In my opinion, it’s kind of gone down. You’ve still got some young guys that are very exciting. They understand and grasp the power that they have.” Said, the former Boston Celtics star during an interview with Times-Picayune sports writer John Reid.
Shaquille does have a point. There are a total of 32 teams in the NBA and it is safe to say only a handful, as low as maybe 4 or 5, have any chance of winning the NBA World Championship next season. There are too many teams without the means, in terms of talent, to compete for the highest prize.
Analysts though believe that it is not because there is a shortage of talent coming through, the league still has some astonishing talent on display. The fact is that the NBA has expanded too much, and the talent pool maybe cannot do justice to the 32 teams at present.
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