THE BIG Dipper AND THE Shaq : A ‘Truthful and Honest’ Chamberlain Compares Himself and Rookie O’Neal

It’s really unfair to compare Shaquille O’Neal with Wilt Chamberlain.

Shaq is faster, jumps better, is quicker and is more of a force in the NBA.

Of course, Shaq is 20 years old and Wilt is 56.

Comparing Shaq the rookie with Wilt the rookie (1959), is equally absurd. It’s like comparing Barry Bonds to Babe Ruth.

I won’t bore you with stats, but how about just this one: When Wilt averaged 37.6 points as an NBA rookie, he was the first player in the history of the league to average more than 29 points.

Shaq worries opponents; Wilt inspired terror.

But why listen to me ramble on about the currently hot, trumped-up, then-vs.-now duel between the Shaq and the Big Dipper?

Let’s ring up the Dipper himself, at his Los Angeles hilltop hideaway.

What do you think of this comparison stuff that’s going around, Wilt?

Wilt heaves a long sigh. About seven feet long.

“Everybody and his mother has been calling to ask that,” Wilt says.

I tell him my mom is busy and can’t call him, so I’ll represent both of us, and I will also share his thoughts with an eager nation.

“I’ve been sitting around contemplating a few things,” Wilt says. “For one, when I talk about these things, people say, “Wilt’s bragging again.’ And yet this stuff is never initiated by Wilt, but by the media trying to compare someone with me.

“I think it’s totally unfair to compare Shaquille with me. In this society of ours, with all the racial unrest, I’m not looking to create any more division or turmoil, I’m just trying to be truthful and honest. And I think it’s strange that every time someone tall and black comes out of college, he’s compared to Wilt. Ralph Sampson, Patrick Ewing, even Kareem to an extent, and now Shaquille.

“It’s a divide-and-conquer thing, rather than giving praise. Someone has to come out as a loser. They never compared Bill Walton to me. He was compared to nobody. I know it may make nice copy to compare Shaquille and I, but I wonder why he has to be like somebody else, and Christian Laettner doesn’t have to. Why doesn’t Laettner come in with the burden of having to prove he’s as good as Larry Bird? Or as good as me?

“Laettner was a two-time NCAA champ, he’s 6-11, he was on the Olympic team, not Shaquille, he’s more graceful and has more basketball experience than Shaquille, maybe he should be compared to me. Who’s he compared to? Nobody, right?He’s allowed to do his own thing, and Shaquille has to prove he’s another Wilt Chamberlain.

“When people make these comparisons, they say I should be honored to be held up as the definition of the apex of a big man. But if that’s the highest accolade, how come when they talk about who the best big man of all time is, they throw four or five other names in there?

“I see Shaquille as a man totally playing his own game of basketball. The bottom line for me is I’d like to see him given the chance to play basketball with his own athletic ability and style, let him be Shaquille O’Neal and not the new Wilt Chamberlain, or the new anyone else.”

That said, Wilt, what do you think of the kid?

“I had the pleasure recently to film a commercial with Shaquille, Bill Russell, Bill Walton and Kareem. I was thoroughly impressed with Shaquille as a young man, I thought he had a lot of class, style, and a lot of enthusiasm.

“I watched him play in person in New York and on TV against the Clippers and the Warriors, and I’ve seen a great deal of him on the ESPN highlights. I notice that 99% of his baskets come on dunks.

“People like to think of me as doing that throughout my career, but that was not how I played basketball. For me, dunking was mainly done off the fast break, where I’d get a rebound, pass it out to Guy Rodgers, run down court and he would flip me the ball for a dunk.

“The last four or five years of my career, when centers started getting more lax on defense, I was able to get inside more often and dunk. But during my heyday of scoring, 90% of my shots were jump shots. I only point this out to show there’s no comparison between Shaquille and I, offensively. Our games are very, very different, especially when I came into the league.

“People have always been confused about what Wilt was about. They only remember the power Wilt of later years, they don’t remember my ability to run and leap. I came into the league at 265 pounds. I shot the jump shot off the board better than anyone except Cazzie Russell, Sam Jones and Dick Barnett. When I averaged 50, and 44, my points came off jump shots, and hooks from time to time. I’ve seen Shaquille make one jump shot.

“He brings a new dimension to the game, he is electrifying, he’s a tremendous shot-blocker and he’s extremely graceful and fluid. This is not a knock at Kareem, but Kareem had the most poetic shot in basketball, the hook, so people thought he was the most graceful of centers. Well, grace and agility are not determined by just one shot.

“If you watch Kareem and I both run the court end to end, there’s no way you’d say he had a more graceful style. Kareem ran like a hook-and-ladder. It was partly my agility and grace that helped me never to foul out (in 1,205 games), and to move around and get all those rebounds.

(Incidentally, O’Neal fouled out of his first NBA game.)

“Shaquille is very graceful for his size. I think this man is only going to get better and better, but he’s going to have to be taught some inside offensive skills. He has already established that he’s going to the basket, so the defense is back on its heels. If he develops a little five-foot jumper, he’s going to be tremendous.

“I’d like to work with him. I’m not saying he needs a lot of help. Everyone can use help, someone could’ve worked with me when I was young. All I’m saying is that I have some offensive moves a guy of his agility and size could use, that would only enhance his game. I don’t know who would be better qualified to help him.

“He has the power, it’s already terrifying, and everyone is going to play him for his power. The league is full of 300-pound guys who will be glad to butt heads with him, like two bull elephants, and it’s going to wear him down. He’s got to learn to score without going inside all the time.”

The one regret of Wilt’s life is that there was no ESPN when he was scoring 50 a game, no videotape, few televised games and very little film. His greatness exists mainly in the fading memories of a increasingly small band of people who saw him play.

I hate to be a tattletale, but I mention to Chamberlain that I heard Nate Thurmond say Wilt had an advantage over O’Neal, in that Shaq gets double and triple-teamed, while opponents played Wilt straight-up, one-on-one.

“If anyone ever played me straight-up, halle-bleeping-lujah,” Chamberlain says. “Against the Celtics it would be Bill Russell, with (Tom) Heinsohn on one side and K.C. Jones dropping back to help. I guess by the time Nate came into the league I wasn’t shooting the ball much, four or five times a game. But when I was scoring points, everyone double and triple-teamed me.”

By the way, I would never compare Wilt and Shaq, because their styles are incredibly dissimilar, and O’Neal’s impact on the league, however large, can’t measure up to Wilt’s rookie Richter reading.

But when O’Neal was in Oakland last Saturday I asked him how he feels when he hears people compare him with Chamberlain, who played his last NBA game when Shaq was 1 year old.

“The only thing I can say,” O’Neal said, “is thanks.”