Who’s Better: All-Time Celtics or All-Time Lakers ?
First Things First – Refuting Shaq’s Opinions
Earlier this week, Shaquille O’Neal and Scottie Pippen had a Twitter war stemming from this question: who’d win – the all-time greatest Bulls or all-time greatest Lakers? Shaq’s all-time best Lakers and Bulls squads go as follows:
Bulls Lakers
PG: Derrick Rose PG: Magic Johnson
SG: Michael Jordan SG: Kobe Bryant
SF: Scottie Pippen SF: Elgin Baylor
PF: Dennis Rodman PF: Shaquille O’Neal
C: Horace Grant C: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
More from Celtics News
- Boston Celtics’ two-way contract decision will be made after training camp
- Proposed trade sends Boston Celtics playoff killer to the Cs from rival
- ‘Face of Germany’s stunning run’ in FIBA World Cup not the only ex-Boston Celtics player to win gold
- Proposed Boston Celtics trade target pitched for reunion with fired coach
- Battle For Banner 18: Will Boston Celtics battle historical foe in 2024 Finals?
First off, there are some fundamental problems with Shaq’s list – beginning with his selection of Horace Grant. While Grant’s work on the offensive boards helped round-out the ’90-’93 Bulls, he was merely Tristan Thompson with a jump shot. Also, Horace Grant played power forward for the Bulls, while Bill Cartwright was that team’s starting center. He’s also far inferior to the likes of Joakim Noah and Artis Gilmore: both of whom would have been better choices at the center spot. The probable reason for Grant’s inclusion in Shaq’s list, is likely due to the two’s fondness of each other. As after Grant left Chicago, he’d go on to play with Shaq in Orlando, and then later, with the 2000-2001 Lakers.
Next issue is Shaq’s classification of himself as a power forward. Shaq couldn’t play any further than two feet away from the hoop – and with Kareem sharing the floor, that team’s spacing would be terrible.
Shaq shouldn’t even be on that list, as he’s probably the third best Lakers center of all-time: after Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
And perhaps the biggest logistical nightmare with this Lakers squad, is their imbalance in play styles. What offense could this team run? For Magic and Adbul-Jabbar, they’d likely rekindle their chemistry with the showtime offense, which would actually work well with Elgin Baylor – whose ’60’s Lakers team also played quickly. However, Shaq and Kobe are better in half-court sets (read triangle offense). We saw how well Kobe and Mike D’Antoni (who’s famous for running the ultra-fast mid-2000s Suns teams) got along in LA, and in addition, there’d be just no way Magic and Kobe could exist on the floor. Magic plays best at the top of the key running the offense and searching for cutters, while Kobe prefers to operate from there as well, but looking for his shot. No way would Kobe want to marginalize himself to hanging out in the corners and be relegated to a cutter.
This Bulls would be all right, considering four of these five actually played together on one of the most legendary teams of all time. While we should switch out Grant for Artis Gilmore – as Gilmore’s far better – we’ll just go along with it for the sake of the experiment.
The biggest issue is the Rose-Jordan chemistry. Jordan’s at his best with the offense flowing through him, so we wouldn’t want to inhibit the best player of all-time by forcing him to play in a system that’s not conducive to his play style. Meanwhile, Rose is simply too ball dominant for this relationship to work. He’d have to turn himself into a Ron Harper-type guard, adapting an off-the-ball game, while becoming more defensive-minded.
I’d say this Bulls team wins – as it’s always unwise to bet against Jordan (unless it’s cards), especially against a team with little spacing.
But since everyone’s been doing it, let’s go along with it and create an all-time Celtics team.
All-Time Celtics:
PG: Dennis Johnson– While old-time Celtics fans contend Bob Cousy‘s the best Celtics PG of all-time, I subscribe to the belief that his skills simply wouldn’t transfer in today’s game (with no disrespect to the man whose name inspired this site’s name). But with DJ, his skill set transcends time – between his elite perimeter defense and top notch ball-distributing skills.
Career Awards: 5X All-Star, 3X Champion, 1X All-NBA First-Team, 1X All-NBA Second Team, 6X NBA All-Defensive First-Team, 3X NBA All-Defensive Second-Team.
Average Statistics: 14.1 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 5.0 apg, 1.1 spg
SG: John Havlicek– With Hondo being the Celtics all-time leading scorer, it’d be blasphemy to put anyone else here. Although he’s somewhat redundant alongside Bird, his hustle and motor makes him an asset to any team. Havlicek was also an elite perimeter defender. Paired next to DJ, this back court tandem would shut down nearly any rival back court. Havlicek was also a solid shooter who would’ve likely been serviceable behind-the-arc.
Career Awards: 13X All-Star, 8X NBA Champion, 4X All-NBA First-Team, 7X All-NBA Second-Team, 7X All-NBA Second-Team, 5X NBA All-Defensive First Team, 3X NBA All-Defensive Second Team
Average Statistics: 20.3 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 4.8 apg, 1.2 spg
SF: Larry Bird– There’s no other option here. Bird’s ability to score from anywhere on the floor was revolutionary. Nobody could back up their trash talk better than him and nobody played the game with such a tenacious resolve. While I’m saddened by the exclusion of Paul Pierce from this list, Bird was the best.
Career Awards: 3X MVP, 12X All-Star, 3X Champion, 9X All-NBA First Team, 1X All-NBA Second Team, 3X All-Defensive Second Team
Average Statistics: 24.3 ppg, 10.0 rpg, 6.3 apg, 1.7 spg
PF: Kevin Garnett– Along with Tim Duncan, Garnett’s right up there in the top PF’s of all-time conversation. Thus, it’s only fitting how he was brought to Boston thanks to our runner-up, Kevin McHale (who was GM of T-Wolves at time). KG’s impact in Boston was primarily on the defensive end. However, he was a prolific post-scorer when he was with the T-Wolves, averaging 24.2 points one season in Minnesota.
Career Awards: 1X MVP, 15X All-Star, 1X NBA Champion, 4X All-NBA First Team, 3X All-NBA Second Team, 2x All-NBA Third Team, 1X Defensive Player of the Year, 9X All-NBA Defensive Team, 3x All-NBA Defensive Second Team
Average Statistics: 18.2 ppg, 10.2 rpg, 3.8 apg, 1.4 bpg
C: Bill Russell– Between Kevin Garnett and Bill Russell, this front courts a block party. Russell was both a prolific rebounder and ball distributor – a combination that’s rarely seen in players nowadays. While Chamberlain may have been the more dominating center of the ’60’s, there’s a reason why Russell won 11 championships and Wilt only won two. Russell made his teammates better, while Wilt inflated his stats.
Career Awards: 5X MVP, 12X All-Star, 11X Champion, 3X All-NBA First Team, 8X All-NBA Second Team, 4X Rebounding Champion, 1X All-NBA Defensive Team
Average Statistics: 15.1 ppg, 22.5 rpg, 4.3 apg
All-Time Lakers (I’m going to have to disagree with Shaq on this one)
PG: Magic Johnson
SG: Kobe Bryant
SF: Elgin Baylor
PF: James Worthy
C: Abdul-Jabbar
I had to replace Shaq from the power forward position. He was a power forward just as much as Spud Webb‘s a power forward.
Celtics vs. Lakers: The End-all Determination of Who’s Better
(For the sake of the discussion, each player is in their prime)
A confrontation between the two All-Time squads I listed above would be the ultimate match-up in offense vs. defense. Every member of that Celtics team made at least one All-NBA defensive team, while only two of these Lakers team made an All-defensive team.
However, the Lakers have the top-2 All-time leading scorers on their team – in addition to the best point guard of all-time in Magic Johnson. Even with a team as defensively formidable as the Celtics, these Lakers would have no problem getting buckets.
The Celtics offense has a few tricks up their sleeve as well, though.
Their offense would elect Larry Bird as it’s number one option, with Dennis Johnson conducting their half-court sets. With Russell on the floor, he’d offer the team some passing options from the high post, a-la-Joakim Noah. He’d be able to hit a cutting Johnson or Havlicek, while Garnett would primarily set up from the baseline.
Garnett could also step out to the high post and set up pick n’ rolls with DJ. For spacing purposes, Garnett should establish his range with the occasional long two-pointer, which we grew accustomed to seeing while he was in green. However, against an undersized Worthy, it’d be best for KG to overpower him in the post and display his patented turnaround jumper.
There are some defensive issues the Celtics would have to surmount though. The Lakers, who have historically operated at a fast rate, would play the fast break each possession. Worthy could run all over Garnett and blow by him quite frequently. Also, with the size difference at PG, DJ would likely want to sag off of Magic and routinely go under pick n’ rolls to encourage Magic to shoot, since he was only a career 30% three-point shooter.
Magic would still find a way to kill the Celtics, while Bird would still find a way to kill the Lakers. It’d be a war of attrition between the two sides that’d inevitably go to triple overtime in the seventh game of the series.
With the game tied, it’s Celtics ball. And in the waning seconds, Celtics call a timeout, and Brad Stevens draws up a play for head coach, Red Aurebach (forgive the ensuing Celtics nerd-gasm).
DJ inbounds it to Bird, who finds an open shot after a slightly-illegal KG moving screen. Bird misses the open jumper. But, before the shot clock expires, Russell soars in from the free throw line and finishes with a thunderous put-back dunk over Abdul-Jabbar in a most egregious fashion.
Celtics win.
Celtics are the best.
End of discussion.