CBS names the best lineup and defensive team of the 21st century: Duncan is the only player to make both First Teams, Jokic edges out Shaq.

On August 19th Beijing time, CBS, a well-known American sports outlet, announced their picks for the best lineup and best defensive team of the 21st century: With 25 full NBA seasons behind us, a quarter of the century is now history. This prompted us to reflect on the past 25 years of basketball and consider the same questions. Which athletes excelled? Who shaped the game? Who would we select for our own best lineup and defensive team of the century? Here are the results—

21st Century First Team All-NBA: Curry, Kobe, LeBron, Duncan, Jokic;

21st Century Second Team All-NBA: Paul, Wade, Durant, Antetokounmpo, Shaquille O’Neal;

21st Century Third Team All-NBA: Nash, Harden, Leonard, Nowitzki, Howard;

21st Century First Team All-Defense: Holiday, Tony Allen, Leonard, Duncan, Ben Wallace;

21st Century Second Team All-Defense: Kidd, Bowen, LeBron, Draymond Green, Howard.

The only player to make both the First Team All-NBA and First Team All-Defense is the Spurs’ Tim Duncan. This further illustrates why he’s considered the greatest power forward in history.

One of the biggest debates regarding the First Team is between Jokic and Shaq—who truly deserves the spot? CBS offered this explanation—

If this were an all-time ranking, Shaq would still clearly have the edge over Jokic. However, we’re only considering what’s happened in this century. Shaq was drafted in 1992, so a large chunk of his career gets excluded. This seems fair enough, as Jokic is only 30. We’re not counting Shaq’s early career, and we haven’t even seen Jokic’s career conclude yet.

Ultimately, the comparison between the two is quite balanced. Jokic has played 745 regular-season games and 94 playoff games. Shaq, in seasons ending after 2000, played 752 regular-season and 150 playoff games. The sample size is now very close, so we can focus mainly on performance.

In terms of winning, Shaq certainly holds the advantage, with four championships compared to Jokic’s one. But it’s important to note that Shaq always had much stronger teammates. It’s well-known that Jokic has never played alongside an All-Star, while in every season Shaq played this century, he had at least one All-Star teammate—a total of nine, though to be fair, four of those were in his final season with the Celtics in 2011. During his championship years, Shaq always had either our First Team shooting guard Kobe or Second Team shooting guard Wade by his side. Given that, it seems unfair to penalize Jokic for not having the same caliber of teammates. Plus, in this era, it’s much harder for a superstar to win multiple titles single-handedly. Over the past seven years, we’ve seen seven different teams win the championship.

Jokic also has a slight edge in playoff statistics. He averages more points (27.4 vs. 23.3), rebounds (12.3 vs. 11.9), and assists (7.6 vs. 2.4), with greater scoring efficiency, and he’s never forced off the court due to poor free-throw shooting. The regular season numbers show a similar trend. Jokic leads most statistical categories, and advanced metrics often suggest the comparison is even more lopsided. Shaq’s defense was stronger at his peak, but any criticism of Jokic’s athleticism applies to Shaq as well. The difference is, in Shaq’s era, big men who were large and less mobile faced fewer penalties for their style of play.

In the end, our voters leaned toward Jokic. Of course, Shaq’s performance in the 1990s is impossible to ignore in any all-time discussion. If Jokic wants to surpass Shaq in this regard, he still has plenty of work ahead of him.

Who would you choose for your own best lineup and best defensive team of the 21st century? What do you think of CBS’s selections? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.