Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic is arguably the best player in the NBA today. Jokic has won the NBA’s MVP award thrice in the last six years and led the Nuggets to the 2023 NBA title. He is also coming off his second straight triple-double season, and this past campaign, Nikola became the first player in NBA history to lead the league in rebounds and assists in the same season.
But great as the Joker is, former NBA point guard Nick Van Exel says he would still take his former Los Angeles Lakers teammate, Shaquille O’Neal, over him if he were to pick a center to play with. According to Van Exel, Jokic is very good and special, but there is no one like O’Neal.
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“Would you want to guard a motherf—r that can score every time in the post? Or would you want to guard a motherf—r that’s going to sometimes make a 3-point shot in the perimeter?”asked Van Exel. “It’s literally that simple, cuz think about this, you ain’t got to double ‘The Joker.’ They don’t have to leave off nobody if Shaq is guarding ‘The Joker.’ All he got to do is lay contest. But on the other end, ‘Joker’ can’t f—k with Shaq. Joker can’t guard Shaq in the post.”
Shaq will wear down Joker
Jokic is a big boy at 6’11” and 284 pounds. However, O’Neal was a monster. Whether it was the young Shaq who was 300 pounds and had 10 percent body fat or the thicker 2002 version, which he once claimed to be 400 pounds, the Los Angeles Lakers legend was a man mountain that no big man could back up and one that bulldozed his way to the basket with raw strength and power.
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Sure, you can argue that he was a horrible free-throw shooter and that defenders could just foul him and send him to the charity stripe, where he would split his foul shots or even miss both. But Van Exel says if Jokic guards O’Neal for one full game, Shaquille’s physicality would take a toll on Nikola’s game. Nick said the case would be even worse in the playoffs.
“In a seven-game series, when I’m (elbowing you), what’s gonna happen? So how many 3’s is he going to be making, say you win two games, in a Game 6? What that jumper gonna be lookin’ like? Stop playing. But ‘Joker’ is cold. But I just got to take Shaq because you gotta double big dog,” he added.
Shaq’s sure he would dominate today’s NBA era
In December, Shaquille said that if he played in today’s era, he would not have any problem with the current crop of centers, including Nikola. O’Neal said he would still play the game the way he did during his era and would still be unstoppable.
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“I would love to play now, imma tell you why. Every time Joker shoots a three, I would run right past him, I would post up in the middle and play my game. I wouldn’t do a bunch of pick-and-roll; they would double me, and I would punch it to my guy. I’m not changing my game,” O’Neal said on “The Big Podcast”.
With all due respect to other NBA centers, past and present, no one has been more physically dominant than Shaq. And yes, Van Exel is correct: Jokic can’t guard O’Neal. But then, nobody could, back in his day. You could only hope he missed his free throws. And even if he did, the amount of beating that opponents took from guarding him alone was too much to handle.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Jun 10, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.