Shaquille O’Neal ranks his top 10 NBA players

Shaquille O’Neal has named his top 10 NBA players of all time, with Stephen Curry one of the big-name omissions from the list.

The legendary Los Angeles Lakers center revealed his picks to Netflix, with his selection likely to cause much debate.

Another surprising name left off the list was fellow legendary Lakers center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

However, both Curry and Abdul-Jabbar were players who O’Neal stated should be in the greatest of all-time debate while speaking on Inside the NBA back in March.

Regarding Curry, O’Neal said: “Definitely changed the game because of him. Because of him, the last three or four years, everybody has been running the three-man weaver, the top of the key.

Shaq reveals his top 10 greatest NBA players of all time 👀

Watch one of the all-time greats make his next play on Power Moves with Shaquille O’Neal premieres June 4. pic.twitter.com/yxonDJvM9m

— Netflix (@netflix) June 3, 2025

“Every team is shooting threes, you know, they want to blame on analytics. It’s because everybody wanted to beat the Golden State Warriors because of this guy.”

O’Neal initially listed himself in tenth, before quickly moving on to present his ten favorites. O’Neal made his selection while promoting the documentary series Power Moves.

The series follows O’Neal and Allen Iverson as they look to relaunch the Reebok brand in basketball.

LeBron James third in top 10 list

Chicago Bulls icon Michael Jordan was named as the best NBA player of all time in a top 10 players list by Shaquille O’Neal.

Jordan is widely regarded as the greatest of all time after winning six titles with the Bulls during the 1990s.

One of the biggest points of debate in O Neal’s rankings is his decision to put Kobe Bryant in second ahead of LeBron James.

Shaq played alongside Kobe for the Los Angeles Lakers from 1996 to 2004, winning three straight NBA titles together between 2000 and 2002.

O’Neal also briefly shared the court with James during the 2009–10 season with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

While LeBron holds many of the NBA’s records, Bryant won more championships, with five compared to James; four. However, the current Lakers star has four MVP awards compared to Bryant’s one.

Magic Johnson, who won five titles and three MVP awards, was picked as the fourth-best player of all time.

Completing the top five was Boston Celtics icon Bill Russell, who won an unprecedented 11 NBA titles from 1957 to 1969.

Meanwhile, the rest of the top 10 was completed by Wilt Chamberlain, Larry Bird, Hakeem Olajuwon, Tim Duncan and Julius Erving.