The Refs let Shaq bump and knock opposing players out of their position pretty much on every play. I watched him play a lot.
Yeah, every time anyone brings up the Shaq comparison to Boogie, I wonder if they ever actually watched both of them play.
Shaq can't be compared to ANYONE.
As I've stated before, he was one of the anointed ones the instant he came into the league - if he had not been a star, the league would have suffered viewers.
So they made damn sure Shaq was able to ignore the rulebooks and "dislodge defenders" all he wanted.
Seriously - go watch tape - he plowed through people all the damn time. It didn't matter of the defender was set, and braced completely straight up - he was allowed to push them over and get to the basket THROUGH them. Dude didn't even have a shot from outside of 3 feet for over 5 seasons IIRC. He didn't have to, since he was allowed to push people over, regardless of what position they had, just because he was the biggest and the strongest. He was the worst bully in the history of the NBA.
Now the NBA DID allow defenders to slap, pull, and hit him quite often, but seriously - any comparisons to Shaq are absurdly inapplicable.
Demarcus has never been allowed to dislodge defenders on a regular basis.
I remember a stretch of maybe 5 games last year or so where he pushed defenders back and inexplicably wasn't called for the offensive foul. (I still don't know why it's allowed rarely, but mostly is whistled - and I've asked here multiple times, and noone seems to know).
The vast majority of games during Boogie's career, he has been absolutely ROOKED by the officials, and anyone claiming otherwise obviously hasn't watched his career with any objectivity.
He has regularly had to put up with disproportionate treatment from the officials - he absorbs craptons of contact, but he breathes on anyone and is called the foul.
This year is the first year he has started to be able to go up vertically and not get called the foul on. For four straight years he literally couldn;t challenge any shot because if he even touched a shooter, he'd get a foul.
This year actually has been the best by far as far as official's treatment - it coincides (likely) with his All-Star selection last year, and All-NBA (and the National team success).
But what I'm talking about in the OP is how the defenses this year (and last year) are frequently not even trying to play him straight-up. They are just hacking him and/or flopping (last year was hideous for that).
My point is - if there is a fan desire to see big men dominate,the NBA should really try to protect Boogie more, because he simply will not last absorbing this punishment. I'm shocked he hasn;t had broken wrists and fingers from all the hacking the opponents do at the ball whenever he has it.