Jayne Kamin-Oncea, USA TODAY Sports

In a recent interview with Antenna Magazine, Shaquille O’Neal offered this microwave-reheated, re-fried take to the Kobe Bryant-LeBron James debate:

“They’re different. LeBron is more of an all-around player — Hey this guy’s open, let me kick it to him. Kobe is more of, Oh, we’re down six? I’m going to shoot it three times and get us six points. But they’re both great players.”

Yes, yes. Very judicious and measured. James is the most dynamic and efficient player in the game but Bryant’s game is art. Fair.

But then Shaq went a little off-script and said that the greatest player of all time was…Julius Erving.

“To me, Dr. J was the greatest player ever. But I ask other people, they say Jordan, some say Kobe, some people say LeBron. It’s always going to be a matter of opinion.”

It might be a matter of opinion, but there’s no real basis for Shaq picking Dr. J over everyone else that’s ever played the game.

Erving has 16 All-Star roster appearances, four MVP awards, and three league titles across both the ABA and NBA on his resume. Not to mention that as of last year, at 63, he could still get up there(!).

However, he was never a great defensive player or perimeter shooter and wasn’t even the best player on his own team in his only NBA title run. He didn’t even put himself in his own top five when he talked about who he thought were the greatest players ever on ESPN’s First Take.

“Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor — who is my favorite — Oscar Robertson and Jerry West. That became my top five as a teenager, and they have remained my top five, so even as good as the great ones are, they’ve got to be on the second team.”

Dr. J might’ve been an exciting player, and Shaq’s favorite when he was coming up watching basketball in the eighties, but greatest ever? No.

(Thanks to Ball Don’t Lie for sharing.)