In the stands, Shaq shook his head: "Look at this idiot, does he really deserve to be called the third-best center currently playing? How can he be compared to me and Yao?"
Bill Simmons shrugged: "I don't mean to spoil the mood, Shaq, but you didn't have much of a strategy against intentional fouls either."
"Come on, only the big centers fouled me. If someone like Stephen Jackson fouled me, I'd just give him a 2+1."
Bill Simmons couldn't deny this point; the Shaq of the Lakers era was indeed terrifying. However, he felt that calling Howard the league's third-best center wasn't an exaggeration.
"Actually, Dwight isn't that far-fetched. If you know that the Rockets' Erik Dampier (traded by the Warriors to the Rockets when Roger arrived) claimed to be the second-best center in the West, and the Rockets actually gave him a big contract, wouldn't you laugh to death?"
