The Tape
Was Shaquille O'Neal better than Giannis Antetokounmpo?
Shaquille O'Neal, 1992-2011, against Giannis Antetokounmpo, 2013-present. The numbers levelled to one league, then the call.
Method, stated plainly: scoring is adjusted to a league averaging 114 points per team per game. Rebounds and assists are printed as they were recorded, with the league scoring rate beside them, because a rebound in 1962 came out of a different number of missed shots and we will not pretend one multiplier fixes that. Career lines for active players run through 2024-25.
What the numbers say
Adjusted to a league averaging 114 points a game, Shaquille O'Neal is the bigger scorer: 34.7 a game in 1999-00 against 30.1 for Giannis Antetokounmpo in 2019-20. That is a real gap of 4.6 points, not an era illusion — Shaquille O'Neal's league averaged 97.5 and Giannis Antetokounmpo's averaged 111.8.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is the passer: 5.6 assists a game to 3.8, and that is the difference between running an offense and finishing one.
Shaquille O'Neal: The most physically unanswerable player of the last 40 years, in the lowest-scoring era since 1955. Giannis Antetokounmpo: Two MVPs and a Defensive Player of the Year, on a first step no defensive scheme has solved.
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