The sparks are flying between Hall of Fame center Shaquille O’Neal and newly acquired Los Angeles Lakers center Dwight Howard. The Hall of Famer recently called out Howard, saying that he is not the best center in the NBA. O’Neal stated that Brook Lopez and ex-Laker Andrew Bynum are better centers than Howard.
The statement is just crazy. When you look at the stats, they clearly shows that Howard is no doubt the best center in the NBA. Lopez has averaged 17.5 points and 7.5 rebounds in career, and Bynum has averaged 11.7 points and 7.8 rebounds. Howard, by comparison, has averaged 18.4 points and 13 rebounds. In addition, Howard is the only active center in the NBA to average a double-double for his career.This clearly shows that D12 (Howard) is better than the two centers mentioned by O’Neal.
The true question is this: why is Shaq attacking Howard like this? Is it because Howard is following in all of Shaq footsteps? First, it was taking O’Neal’s nickname of Superman, and now it’s his move to Los Angeles. Both of these great centers were drafted by the Orlando Magic, and then went to the Lakers in search of a championship. If the Lakers win the NBA championship this year, D12 would win his first title at the age of 27; the same age Shaq was when he won his first championship, and on the same team.
The final question would then be whether or not Dwight Howard would be as great of a center as Shaquille O’Neal was?
This is going to be a crazy NBA season and we will have to tune in to see what would happen next.
