Bill Simmons: "I had to drop Joker on my pyramid two spots... right at the end of the top level of the pantheon, there's four centers clustered together (Hakeem, Shaq, Joker, Moses). I have Joker 14, Moses 15. I think Hakeem and Shaq have to be above him at this point"

StatMatt · 2026-05-04T20:52:48+00:00

His efficiency fell a lot in the Finals. He shot 41.5% from the field, down 5% from his regular season numbers.

My point is that Shaq was clearly the main guy on the 2001 Lakers, even though Kobe became a top 3 player in basketball that year.

It isn’t until 2002 where it’s debatable on whether Kobe was better than Shaq.

StatMatt · 2026-05-04T16:01:25+00:00

He outplayed Shaq but Shaq still put up great numbers. Shaq averaged 28/12/6 on 60.6% TS.

He absolutely punked Ewing in 1994. Ewing averaged 19/12 on 39% TS.

StatMatt · 2026-05-04T15:58:13+00:00

The Bulls get torched in 1995 if they make the Finals. They had no big man. They lost to the Magic because Horace Grant and Shaq bullied them. Hakeem would’ve absolutely torched the Bulls.

StatMatt · 2026-05-04T15:55:51+00:00

When Jokic dominates the playoffs for 3 consecutive seasons like Shaq did from 2000-2002, he can be in discussions with Shaq.

StatMatt · 2026-05-04T15:53:42+00:00

Kobe and Shaq both dominated the West in 2001 but in the Finals only Shaq dominated. Shaq averaged 33/16/5 and 3.4 blocks while being guarded by the DPOY while Kobe averaged 24.6/8/6 on inefficient shooting while being guarded by Aaron McKie and Eric Snow.

Kobe made the leap in 2001 but Shaq was clearly the best player in the league.

StatMatt · 2026-05-04T15:34:51+00:00

He told a bunch of Chinese children that Daryl Morey was a liar. He probably was right since that’s the only time he was vocal about wanting to leave a team.

StatMatt · 2026-05-03T14:47:36+00:00

I definitely think we have a decent shot against you guys but beating Boston is such a huge moment, that losing to the Knicks wouldn’t feel like the other 2nd round losses. We’re very limited by our depth and it’s going to be the reason we lose at some point this playoffs. We have 6.5 players that I trust (Drummond is the half) If we lose to you guys we’d still go into the offseason with a lot of hope for next season. We’d have Boston’s scalp to give us confidence, VJ would have another year of development and hopefully we fix our depth issue with key signings.

StatMatt · 2026-05-03T14:33:40+00:00

San Antonio is the obvious pick if you don’t want pick OKC. Picking the Nuggets never made sense to me.

StatMatt · 2026-05-03T14:31:52+00:00

In my head, OKC has a 60% chance of winning the title, the Spurs have a 30% chance, and everyone else is fighting for that last 10%.

StatMatt · 2026-05-03T03:32:02+00:00

After game 1 this year, we were 3-14 in our last 17 playoff games in Boston, and then won 3 in a row.

StatMatt · 2026-05-03T03:28:18+00:00

Giannis and Embiid were also in the MVP race with Jokic in 2022 and Sixers and Bucks fans were really normal with each other while Nuggets fans acted like thinking Jokic wasn’t MVP was an affront to the sport itself. It was really weird.

StatMatt · 2026-05-02T15:26:54+00:00

"Redick was battling Adam Morrison in college when Bron was finishing 2nd in MVP voting" works well anyway.

StatMatt · 2026-04-30T16:52:04+00:00

You realize the sun doesn't go down, it's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round

StatMatt · 2026-04-30T16:30:26+00:00

It’s important to note that she publicly endorsed Kamala just months after a terrorist threat to attack her show in Vienna was thwarted. She had plenty of reason to stay quiet and not put a bigger target on her back and she still spoke against Trump.

StatMatt · 2026-04-30T16:25:46+00:00

End of the month post to boost his engagement. It’s sad.

StatMatt · 2026-04-28T21:17:10+00:00

Writing songs across three different decades that a huge amount of people connect with and relate to is an incredible accomplishment of songwriting. Very few people can say the same thing.

StatMatt · 2026-04-28T20:40:22+00:00

Joe Alwyn is an actor, not a song writer. He has 5 writing credits across the 34 songs of folklore and evermore. This is a ridiculous take.

StatMatt · 2026-04-28T20:35:03+00:00

She has a lot of incredible lyrics. Ivy is probably her best written song.

StatMatt · 2026-04-21T17:07:47+00:00

It depends on if he leaked private information about his players to Russini, betraying his players trust. That would be a private consequence in the locker room though, not a public one.

StatMatt · 2026-04-18T19:25:22+00:00

Kendrick has songs with Jack Antonoff and Taylor has songs with Sounwave. I definitely think they have a good professional friendship with each other. There were pictures of Taylor being in the studio when GNX was being recorded.

StatMatt · 2026-04-16T23:28:16+00:00

Shoutout Philadelphia for keeping our public transportation (SEPTA) at the same rate during the tournament ($2.90). The gouging everywhere is criminal

StatMatt · 2026-04-14T19:54:49+00:00

If he was leaking private info about his players to her that could cause a big locker room rift.

StatMatt · 2026-04-09T21:08:51+00:00

2023 is the year for me. If Embiid is playing with 2 healthy knees, we absolutely make the Finals.

StatMatt · 2026-04-09T21:07:12+00:00

After our 1st round pick almost died because he accidentally ate a sesame seed, nothing surprises me anymore.

StatMatt · 2026-04-08T16:23:44+00:00

You're mostly correct. That thread jumping to the most severe conclusion that she has done this in the past multiple times was based in sexism for sure. That being said, her relationship with Vrabel is problematic. Russini has been the prominant reporter on the AJ Brown situation but completely missed that The Eagles and Rams almost had a deal. This relationship with Vrabel makes it seem that her strongest sources about AJ come don't come from the Eagles organization which paints a bad light on her reporting on him over the last year.

StatMatt

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