by O'Dell Isaac, basketball odds consultant - January 29, 2009
Shaquille O'Neal doesn't seem to like the rampant comparisons between himself in his prime and Dwight Howard. Pity. He's going to have to get used to them.
There are a couple of reasons for these comparisons. One, media folks love to compare players from different eras. Sure, Shaq is still playing (and quite well, recently), but the sun is setting on his career while Howard's is just beginning.
Secondly, there is no one else in the league to compare Howard to. He's bigger and stronger than just about everyone else, plays with his back to the basket, scores most of his points via rim-rattling, two handed dunks. Who does that sound like, exactly?
Let's begin with the differences between the two. Shaq spent three years at LSU, refining his low-post game and learning how to fight through double- and triple-teams. Howard entered the league straight out of high school, and while it was obvious early on that he had tremendous potential, his game was quite raw.
Physically, Shaq was - and is - a beast. At 7'1" and 300+ pounds, with the lower-body strength of a rhinoceros, he can power his way to the hoop, and was so much stronger than everyone else that some of the league's rules had to be changed for him. Howard is more slender, better-conditioned, and has outrageous leaping ability.
Shaq is an outsized personality with a tremendous ego, and while Howard does have some capacity for narcissism (it takes a bit of self-love to refer to oneself as Superman), he is very low-key by comparison.
Now for the similarities:
Both were drafted by Orlando, number one overall. Pretty self-explanatory.
The Superman thing.
Both shoot at a very high percentage, which is just another way of saying their bread-and-butter comes from dunks and layups.
Both are below-average free throw shooters (though Shaq has been historically awful).
Both run the floor well for men their size.
Both have been among the league's best rebounders.
Here's another similarity that seems to go unnoticed: Shaq and Howard are both unusually comfortable with being big. Wilt Chamberlain, another great center from a past era, was never truly comfortable with his size until later in life. He never liked towering head-and shoulders over everybody else. Shaq, on the other hand, has always been very happy being Shaq. He views being very large as a gift and a blessing, not as a burden or a liability. Howard shows a similar sense of being comfortable in his own skin.
Michael Jordan came into the NBA looking to be the next generation of high-flying, above-the-rim superstar, aiming to do Dr. J one better (beginning with the Slam Dunk Contest dunk from the free throw line, which Dr. J popularized but Michael perfected). It is possible that Dwight Howard set his sights on becoming a Shaq upgrade - eerily similar, but more evolved. He still has a ways to go, obviously (and any mention of Shaq has to include his four championship rings), but Howard appears to be on his way to Second Coming status. He is the only one of his generation who will ever come close, and anyone involved in NBA betting would always do well to respect his presence on the court.
