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Shaq Leaves Surprising Player Off ‘4 Most Skilled NBA Scorers’ List

Shaq Leaves Surprising Player Off '4 Most Skilled NBA Scorers' List

Shaquille O’Neal has the capacity to consistently be one of the most fascinating and insightful NBA analysts around.

Sometimes the Hall of Famer utilizes it, other times he doesn’t.

This past week, O’Neal offered his thoughts on who the four most skilled NBA scorers of all time are.

O’Neal’s list isn’t surprising in itself.

Shaq Leaves Surprising Player Off '4 Most Skilled NBA Scorers' List 1

Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Kobe Bryant all made the cut – as most would expect some combination of them to.

One notable omission, though? Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors.

Curry is coming off one of the most impressive years of his career, and given how incredible he has looked, it’s interesting that it didn’t earn him placement on O’Neal’s rankings.

What makes it equally surprising is the way O’Neal has spoken about Curry in recent years – calling him his ‘favorite’ player in the NBA.

While Curry obviously deserves placement on the list, it’s hard to make a case for removing any of Jordan, Durant, James or Bryant. And that’s probably the issue that O’Neal ran into when comprising his rankings.

Whether he is offering his thoughts on the 5 best players in the NBA today, why he used to hate Curry, or who his favorite player in the league is – O’Neal can be really pleasant when he’s talking hoops.

Over the past few years O’Neal’s reputation has changed a bit. He went from being a fun-loving and goofy person to someone who had a series of explicit text messages between him and a special lady friend leak out and a guy talked about policing his daughters’ dating habits. It was a weird shift.

O’Neal is at his best when he is being jovial and breaking down basketball. Hopefully he sticks to more of that going forward, because that’s what initially made fans fall in love with his personality.

Related: Derrick Rose Explains Why He’s Not Scared Of Trae Young

Carlos Garcia

A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.

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