in nba history, who has been the hardest player to stop?

[The15thunter]

i was pondering this question this morning, and it's an interesting one. it's different than "who's the best?" or "who's the most dominant?" because it's more of an individual question that focuses primarily on skill-set vs. the ability to defend it. it also opens up two qualifiers.

1. who is the hardest player to stop individually? that is to say, who is the most difficult player ever to defend against effectively one-on-one?

2. who is the hardest player to stop overall, within a team concept? that is to say, assume we double team him and take away his scoring, who can hurt you the most in the most other ways? who is the hardest to build a defensive gameplan against?

these are the players i came up with, some applying more to one of the qualifiers than the other, but i don't think i really have a concrete answer.

michael jordan
kobe bryant
allen iverson
isiah thomas
larry bird
kareem abdul-jabbar
wilt chamberlain
shaquille o'neal
hakeem olajuwon
lebron james

[JerzeyReign]

Easy: Michael Jordan /close thread lol jk

Post player: Young Akeem! I don't think I've ever seen a more versatile player on the block. No, I'm not old (26) but I watch alot of ESPN classics. He was amazing.

[55]

[wwharton]

I actually think with the context of the question, I'd go with Shaq over Jordan (both in their prime).

[jeebs9]

I thought of Shaq myself. But his free-throws scared me off. it has to be Mike. I mean if anyone can take as many shots as he has, and still be able to shot 50% for his career. Is nuts.

[The 24th Letter]

I gotta take Shaq...

some of those players will bail you out with a jumpshot occasionally...

Shaq took the highest percentage shots you can take, and made them at a high percentage....in his prime: unstoppable

[Dice]

For me, the hardest player to stop is Shaq. People think I'm crazy when I say that one of the reasons the NBA allowed zone defenses back in 2001 so teams would have some leverage of containing Shaq. Back then, you couldn't stop Shaq with two guys. It was almost impossible to guard that guy. And I feel when the NBA changes the rules for you(even though they don't admit it) your a bad ***.

NOW, this is not to say that Michael Jordan was easy to stop. Jordan is still the best basketball player to ever step on an NBA court. However, Shaq was the most dominate player I've seen play.

[AiRJorDan23]

At my age and the guys I seen it has to be MJ and Shaq hands down. We all know how dominate MJ is but sometimes i think ppl forget exactly how dominate Shaq was in his prime. That guy was unguardable the only way to stop him was to foul him.