Shaq and LeBron legacies linked

The one historical knock on Shaq is that for a man his size he was not as utterly dominant a rebounder as you would have expected, failing to ever win a rebounding crown. He also had a penchant for defensive disinterest at times.

All this consideration of Shaq's place in hoops history also got me thinking about how many parallels there are between O'Neal and LeBron James, who with brute strength and dazzling athleticism is really the Shaq of shooting guards/small forwards. It is O'Neal, not Michael Jordan, that is a more relevant and apt comparison for King James.

Both O'Neal and James are physically freaks of nature whose sheer stature defined their games. Watching James bull past and bowl over opponents on the way to the rim doesn't remind you of Jordan. It brings to mind Shaq riding to the rim with hapless and helpless defenders draped all over him. Covering Shaq was a bruising task, and checking LeBron is a black-and-blue assignment as well; just ask Paul Pierce.

Both O'Neal and James were/are impossible to defend at times simply because of the way they're built. The sui generis physical prowess they're endowed with is their greatest gift, but it also works against them, as their ability to physically dominate opponents comes with outsized expectations and little sympathy.

Both left their original teams via free agency -- devastating the franchises they left behind -- to head to more glamorous destinations. In Shaq's case it was leaving Orlando for the Los Angeles Lakers. In LeBron's it was abandoning Cleveland to take his talents to South Beach.