Shaq was on First Take with Stephen A. Smith when he stated that Steph Curry was definitely in his top 10 list of greatest players to ever play the game of basketball.
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The Golden State Warriors were able to beat the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the NBA Finals only because of one man and he is Stephen Curry. Curry dropped 43 points on the night and also had 10 rebounds in what was an all-around performance. To put things into perspective about how decisive his performance was, the next top scorer for the Warriors was Klay Thompson with 18 points. NBA legend and analyst Shaquille O’Neal was on First Take when he was asked if Steph was in his top 10 players of all time and he responded in the affirmative.
“Some guys have their own special category that you can’t mess with.”
—@SHAQ says Steph Curry is in a league of his own as a top 10 player all-time. pic.twitter.com/PLxUjfEjon
— First Take (@FirstTake) June 13, 2022
Speaking on ESPN’s First Take, Shaq said, “He is already in my company. Me and Stephen had this conversation before, you know with so many great guys before and some guys coming after us. Some guys have their own special category that you can’t mess with. For example, when it comes to the most dominant, Wilt (Chamberlain), myself. You’ve always got Kobe (Bryant), LeBron (James) and Mike (Michael Jordan). When it comes to the greatest shooter of all time, Steph Curry is in there by itself. So, does that make him top 10? In my opinion, it does.
“I love the way he plays the game. You know he plays with great energy, great passion and you knew that as great as a player he is, he was going to have a game like that. He needed to have a game like that for them to win and that is what great players do.”
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Not one to miss out on all the fun, Stephen A. Smith interjected by saying if Steph indeed was on Shaq’s list, which player would go out? To that, Shaq jokingly responded by saying no matter who is removed, he most definitely wouldn’t remove himself.
Smith asked, “Well Shaq, if you are going to have him in your top 10, who the hell do you take out? Yourself? Wilt? Russell (Bill)? Tim Duncan? Who do you take out? Bird (Larry)? Who?
Shaquille O’Neal responded by saying, “You know that top 10 list is kind of difficult to make so I think like we should always put it in categories like top 10 guards, top 10 forwards, top 10 centers. But is he a top 10 player? Yeah. You’ve got to take out somebody. You ain’t going to take me out. You’ve got to take somebody out.”
