Shaquille O’Neal says he’d rather have Bol Bol than Zion Williamson — WHAT?!

Stop me if you’ve heard this one — WHAT?!

Shaquille O’Neal recently asserted that he would rather build his franchise around Bol Bol than Zion Williamson. Nothing against the 44th pick in the 2019 draft; we’re sure he’s a fine player, but to choose Bol over Williamson shows that Shaq has some very severe reasoning skills. Not to mention bias as Bol played alongside his son Shareef.

“(Bol) and Shareef are friends and I’ve seen the potential what this kid can do.” said Shaq. “For example, when I was his coach in AAU, we never lost. He’s got it all. He’s (7-2), can shoot, dribble, can pass. Nobody really knows it because he was always hurt.”

That’s all well and good, but though Bol’s height is a bonus, his weight (236lbs) isn’t. That alone should have informed Shaq that Bol wouldn’t be nearly as ready as Zion. That’s never stopped Shaq and he continued bashing Zion as if he’d never seen the kid play:

“Zion is dunker, dunker, dunker, dunker,” O’Neal continued. “He ain’t gonna be able to do all that (in the NBA). I was the man in high school. I was the man in college. As soon as I got to the NBA, I was No. 50. I had to start (improving). I know (Williamson’s) a powerful dunker, but he’s going to have to develop something else.”

For being an NBA analyst and former player, Shaq has been derelict in researching Williamson’s game. He isn’t just a dunker, he makes shots in traffic, he goes after offensive rebounds, he’s proven he can hit the mid range shot and even step back and make a three.

Shaquille O’Neal’s hypocrisy isn’t lost on us. He came into the league as a dunker, won several championships, and left the league as a dunker; having not really developed much outside of that.

I think it’s safe to say that Zion is already a more-rounded player (more-rounded, not better) than Shaq was when he left as a player.