During his appearance on the Netflix docuseries 'Starting 5' former U.S. president, Barack Obama was asked to name his all-time starting five, which would beat any other team ever assembled. Obama's choices were Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and Hakeem Olajuwon .
The ex-POTUS's choice received various reactions from different people. Those included ESPN's Stephen A. Smith , who agreed with four of Obama's choices except the former president's pick for the center position.
"You're talking about Hakeem 'The Dream' Olajuwon, a two-time champion, a great defensive player, a Hall of Famer, the Dream Shake and all of that," said Smith on his show. "We know how he abused David Robinson and other players, we know how he abused Patrick Ewing in the Finals, we get all of that. But I still got to go with the Diesel, Shaquille O'Neal."
Obama said Olajuwon can do it all
Obama's choice of Olajuwon was interesting. As great as Hakeem was, the center position has some of the greatest players to ever play the game, such as Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Shaq .
In picking Olajuwon, Obama said the 'Dream' playing style perfectly translates to today's game. He called Olajuwon an amazing athlete and a defensive anchor while saying that the 1994 NBA MVP would give him everything he needed from the center position. Barack makes a good argument but SAS thinks differently.
"I could have picked Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who's got a better resume than anybody from the center position outside Bill Russell. But I'm not going there. I'm thinking the dominance, the girth, the mass, the size, the power, the indomitable presence that Shaquille O'Neal was compared with those brothers."
Phil Jackson says Shaq changed the game
O'Neal is arguably the most dominant force to ever step foot on the basketball court. Former Bulls and Lakers head coach Phil Jackson, who won three championships with Shaq, said that the Diesel's dominance changed how the game was played .
"Shaq had a dominance that changed the game, and in that era when the league was making an adjustment, how they are going to allow defenses to happen. Shaq was the major component that allowed defenses to change. You can play a zone now; basically, they just have a three-second lane violation, and you can play any defense you want. Before that, it was difficult to defend against Shaq because you had to do it individually. You could double team, but you had to do it in a certain way, and Shaq was a great passer of the post," said Jackson.
You can't argue with Smith and Phil about Shaq's dominance; he may be the most dominant player ever. However, Obama's team already has MJ - the GOAT, so perhaps he didn't feel the need for another dominant player on his team. His team had two offensive players, Steph and KD, so he probably felt he needed more defense. Shaq would have been a good choice, but you can't go wrong with 'The Dream' either. As SAS himself said, that team is still beating anybody either way.
Related: "I think they'd beat anybody" - Barack Obama shares his all-time starting five
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