{"id":607793,"date":"2026-02-17T08:49:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T08:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/607793\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T08:49:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T08:49:21","slug":"shaquille-oneal-doesnt-hesitate-to-name-the-greatest-nba-player-of-all-time-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/607793\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaquille O\u2019Neal doesn\u2019t hesitate to name the greatest NBA player of all time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shaquille O\u2019Neal doesn\u2019t hesitate to name the greatest NBA player of all time<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The debate over the greatest basketball player of all time may never be settled, as everyone has their own opinion.<\/p>\n

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More often than not, the conversation comes down to LeBron James or Michael Jordan. However, according to fellow NBA legend Shaquille O\u2019Neal, neither holds the title.<\/p>\n

Instead, O\u2019Neal revealed during an interview with Overtime that, in his eyes, the greatest player in basketball history is Golden State Warriors<\/a> guard Stephen Curry.<\/p>\n

During the interview, O\u2019Neal was asked to react when he heard a name better than Curry. Damian Lillard, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, Magic<\/a> Johnson, James, Jordan \u2014 even O\u2019Neal himself \u2014 were brought up. He remained silent each time before finally delivering his answer:<\/p>\n

\u201cSteph is the GOAT,” O’Neal said.<\/p>\n

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MORE:\u00a0The key stats you need to know in the GOAT debate<\/a><\/p>\n

While Curry certainly has a strong resume \u2014 as a four-time NBA champion, widely regarded as the greatest shooter of all time, an 11-time All-Star, two-time MVP, 11-time All-NBA selection, and the holder of numerous regular-season and postseason franchise and league records \u2014 it is still a bold take to place him above players such as James and Jordan.<\/p>\n

Yet O\u2019Neal has long been one of Curry\u2019s biggest supporters in this debate. Back in 2023<\/a>, he even said, \u201cI\u2019m wondering if it\u2019s time to start putting [Steph Curry] as the best player of all time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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When Kenny Smith followed up by asking if he would put Curry over himself, O\u2019Neal kept it simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

More NBA news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shaquille O\u2019Neal doesn\u2019t hesitate to name the greatest NBA player of all time originally appeared on The Sporting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,3628,2596,125,164,938,185,935,6,254,1302,573],"class_list":{"0":"post-607793","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-carmelo-anthony","10":"tag-chris-paul","11":"tag-damian-lillard","12":"tag-golden-state-warriors","13":"tag-kevin-durant","14":"tag-lebron-james","15":"tag-michael-jordan","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-russell-westbrook","18":"tag-shaquille-oneal","19":"tag-stephen-curry"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116085113990223410","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}