Shaquille O'neal revealed his all-time starting five during a recent New Heights appearance, putting Stephen Curry at the one, Kobe Bryant at the two, Michael Jordan at the three, Tim Duncan at the four and himself at the five — and he made a point of excluding LeBron James.
On the Kelce brothers' podcast O'Neal listed the five plainly: "[Stephen] Curry at the one. Kobe [Bryant] at the two. [Michael] Jordan at the three. Tim Duncan at the four. And me at the five. And nobody's beating that team." He added repeatedly that his choices were about fit, saying simply, "I need a shooter" and calling Curry "the best shooter in the world."
That compact explanation carries weight: O'Neal is a four-time NBA champion and a league MVP, and his lineup pairs him with four of the game's most decorated wings and bigs. One recent analysis pointed out that Curry and O'Neal have the fewest NBA titles among those five, with four apiece, while Duncan's five championships and two MVPs sit across from O'Neal's four titles and one MVP. The same look back at their careers also flagged how long and intense O'Neal's rivalry with Duncan was — both played 19 seasons, with O'Neal owning an 18-14 regular-season edge and the pair deadlocked 15-15 in postseason meetings.
O'Neal tried to head off predictable controversy. "I hate doing these lists because I don't know how your guy is going to edit it, right? But let's just say I did that to somebody that didn’t like us, and then they’ll lead it off with ‘Shaq excludes LeBron,’ right? And then it causes unnecessary beef," he said, framing his public lineup as a careful choice rather than an invitation to argument. He also noted the personal element in his picks, saying the second player he named is "someone he helped raise," an obvious reference to his long relationship with Kobe Bryant.
The friction is immediate. Leaving LeBron James off a five-man team in 2026 is not a neutral omission — it forces the puzzle: was O'Neal ranking by sheer career peak, by titles, by on-court fit around a dominant center, or by personal ties and goodwill? His stated needs — a shooter to space the floor and the "best shooter in the world" to stretch defenses — point to lineup construction over a tally of honors. Yet the listed honors complicate that reading: Duncan's superior championship and MVP totals and the even postseason ledger between O'Neal and Duncan suggest O'Neal is comfortable with a teammate who matched him in longevity and playoff toughness even if Duncan's résumé edges his.
The choice will land exactly where O'Neal predicted — in headlines and on message boards — but it also exposes an unanswered, consequential question about how modern all-time lists should be judged: does a five-man team reflect individual greatness or a theoretical roster built to maximize spacing and center dominance? O'Neal offered his roster and a partial rationale — fit, shooting and an effort to avoid "unnecessary beef" — but he did not explain how he weighed championships, MVPs, versatility or era when passing on LeBron James, leaving the single most important question of the conversation unresolved.
