Shaq Criticizes Kobe Bryant’s Absence In New All-Time NBA Top 10 List: ‘Criminal’

If we know one thing for sure, Shaquille O’Neal is always ready to speak his mind. He recently ripped into a recent ranking of the all-time best NBA players made by Bleacher Report, in which Kobe Bryant doesn’t appear as part of the top 10 greatest in the sport. 

This Monday, the popular sport site released their list of the “top 100 NBA players ever,” which was based on a collection of opinion from a “legion of B/R NBA experts, writers and editors.” O’Neal himself ended outside the top 5 ranking, and didn’t seem to be bothered by that.

His conflict with the list came with the placement of his former Lakers teammate, the late Kobe. “Kobe at 11 is criminal,” he wrote in the comments of a Bleacher Report post on X that simply revealed the list’s top 20.

While the purple and gold legend ended in the 11th spot, the 10 players ahead of him are: Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Bill Russell, O’Neal, Tim Duncan, Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain and Stephen Curry.

Following Bryant, the lost continues with other Hall of Famers like Hakeem Olajuwon, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, and current stars like Kevin Durant. In the past, O’Neal has placed the Lakers legend in an all-time first team alongside himself, Bryant, Jordan, Johnson and James.

When Kobe and his daughter Gianna passed away in 2020, Shaq was one of the speakers at the memorial service, and talked about his basketball greatness. “Kobe and I pushed one another to play some of the greatest basketball of all time and I am proud that no other team has accomplished what the three-peat Lakers have done.

“And sometimes like immature kids, we argued, we fought, we bantered, we assaulted each other with offhand remarks on the field. Make no mistake, even when folks thought we were on bad terms, when the cameras are turned off, he and I would throw a wink at each other and say let’s go whoop some ass,” O’Neal shared.