##8 and 7 -- Shaquille O'Neal and Bill Russell

#8 Shaquille O'Neal -- Look, the big fella was virtually never in shape after 1999.  He was often heavy and enjoyed life, even if it meant missing regular season games.  That explains his 1 MVP Award in the regular season.  Despite this, he ranks 7th in MVP Award Shares.  So, he was great despite himself. 


Shaq won 4 titles, and 3 Finals MVPs.  The others with that accomplishment?  Michael, Magic, Duncan.  No one else. Shaq has 31 playoff Win Shares, playing at a WS/48 rate of .184.  There are 7 such players.  These 6 guys and Bill Russell are above Shaq and this list.  If you take this list: 

http://bkref.com/tiny/jLo5V and look at all the guys with as many or more WS as a first-team all-NBA player, Shaq ranks..........7th on WS/48. 

Shaq (counting 1st, 2nd and 3rd team awards) was 14X all-NBA as a center.  During his career, he played against Hall of Fame centers Patrick Ewing, Hakeem, David Robinson,  Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo, Yao Ming and against Tim Duncan (who says he is a center when it suits him).


Shaq should probably be at #7, but you need to find some place to put Bill Russell.




#7 Bill Russell -- #1 all-time in Defensive Win Shares; the Finals MVP Award is named...........after Bill Russell.  He won 11 titles, losing only once to Bob Pettit and once to Wilt.  He is the greatest defensive basketball player of all-time.  Russell has 133 Defensive Win Shares, 27 more than second place Tim Duncan, roughly 40 more than Kareem, Hakeem, Wilt, KG, Karl Malone and roughly 50 more than anyone else!!


Russell's dominance from a winning perspective has never been matched, ever.  It probably never will be matched if they play basketball for 2,000 more years.  Russell was a 5X MVP and probably would have won 5+ Finals MVPs, but the award did not exist until 1968! 


So - if the guy is so historically great (and he obviously was) why do I drop him off here?  Well, he shot 44% from the field, although he got a ton of dunks and layups.  He shot 56% from the line.  Of the 82 guys who played at least 34,000 NBA minutes, Russell ranked 72nd in total points, 72nd in FG%, 80th in FT% (Shaq and Wilt were worse) and 81st in TS% (Nate Thurmond was worse, Paul Silas was better).


In a really, really weird twist of logic, Wilt had 7 first-team all-NBA's to Russell's 3.  These all occurred while Wilt was playing against Russell.  But in the same time period Russell had 5 MVPs to Wilt's 4.  Russ in an 8 year stretch of MVP balloting had 5 wins, 2 seconds and a 3rd.  In a 9 year stretch, Wilt had 4 wins, 2 seconds, a 4th a 5th and a 7th.   Wilt played better longer, Wilt had more rebounds.  Wilt had far superior offensive stats and advanced stats. 


If you look at Win Shares, Russell's career "high to low" rating (rounding) goes 17-17-15-14-14-13-13-12-12-11-11-8-6.  Very similar to Shaq's. 


Wilt's?  25-23-22-21-21-20-19-18-17-16-15-15-13-2


Russell was the more successful player (and perhaps more valuable to the team he was on).  He was NOT the better player.  Wilt was the better player, by a lot.