Take it from Moses Malone, who was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last month: Shaquille O'Neal plays on a level above everyone else in today's game.
"I only see one guy playing the game the way it should be played, and that's Shaq," Malone said. "I think Shaq has gone past smart and has elevated his thinking to where he's wise. He got wise. He understands what he has to do now. So many big men these days want to play like little guys. They want to shoot from the outside."
Malone believes the rules changes for this season allowing teams to play zone defenses was designed to help against O'Neal because he was dominating the game so much.
"He's so tough they have to change defenses to try and stop him," Malone said. "You think they're changing these defenses to stop Kobe Bryant? Or Allen Iverson? No. They're changing the defenses to stop one guy -- Shaq. That's because Shaq is playing the game the way a big man should play."
Amaechi in doghouse
John Amaechi, who spent two years in Orlando as the Magic center before signing as a free agent in Utah, hasn't exactly endeared himself to Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan in the preseason.
Sloan was livid at the way the Jazz big men, particularly Amaechi and fellow center Greg Ostertag, rebounded in a game last week against the Knicks, a poor-rebounding team. Both have been slowed by conditioning problems. Neither ever has been a good rebounder.
"[Five] rebounds out of the center position? That's not enough," Sloan said. "You're going to get beat every time. We have guys sucking air. They can't get up and down the floor. We have a strength-and-conditioning coach. We have weights. We've got anything in the world a guy needs to get in shape, and right now we've got guys who aren't in real good shape."