RealGM

If you believe the wonders of the Internet, Shaquille O’Neal moonlights as a goalie, ranks as the tech-savviest 320-pound center in the NBA, and, yes, apparently rolls with Mickey Rourke. These days, he’s also making his free throws, so that much has changed.

Shaq will turn 37 in a week. He still multitasks, his shadow still swallows the longest of NBA hallways and, as All-Star weekend proved, he’s forever the life of the party. If you’re wondering where the years have gone, the league has kindly cued up a seven-day reunion tour. O’Neal and his Phoenix Suns lost to the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday, and they’ll see them again on Sunday. Then it’s off to Florida to rekindle memories with the Orlando Magic and Miami Heat.

Four franchises, 17 seasons, and O’Neal knows his passport might have to collect at least one more stamp before he lumbers off into retirement. A week ago, the Suns tried to trade him. Those same trade winds will continue to blow this summer, and that’s why more than a few people would like to see him make next season his last. He’s been too good for too long to have to schlep his bags from team to team.

“This is just as a friend, with what he’s accomplished in this league, there’s no sense in him hanging on when he doesn’t have to,” Lakers guard Derek Fisher said. “… I think one more season after this season could be a good finish to a great career.”

This isn’t about whether O’Neal can play, but whether he should. O’Neal has proven he can still play. On Friday, he bullied the Toronto Raptors for 45 points. He doesn’t command a double-team as often as he once did, which lessens his impact, but the 17.4 points and 8.8 rebounds he’s averaged exceed the offensive production of Kevin Garnett. Shaq’s All-Star selection wasn’t a gift. He earned it.

The problem is the Suns are paying roughly $20 million for those 17.4 points and 8.8 rebounds. If O’Neal, like Garnett, was the missing piece for a championship team, his salary could be reasoned, in NBA terms, as a necessary expense. But O’Neal doesn’t defend like Garnett and the Suns certainly aren’t the Celtics.

The Suns tried to trade O’Neal for the same reason the Lakers and Heat traded him: They no longer wanted to pay him. Suns owner Robert Sarver has watched his fortune take a hit as the banking and mortgage industries have taken theirs. And while Sarver can dip into the slush fund the NBA just created to help ailing franchises, the economy isn’t going to suddenly rebound over the summer. At some point, O’Neal and Amare Stoudemire likely will both go back on the trading block.

“Business is different,” O’Neal said. “A lot of guys want to do certain things to save money. I know at the end of the day any businessman is going to do what’s right for his or her business.”

The Cleveland Cavaliers were still discussing a deal for O’Neal on the day of the trade deadline, but only wanted to take him on if they could unload Ben Wallace’s own burdensome contract. O’Neal will be in the final season of his contract next season, so he might attract a few more suitors, particularly if he treats a few more opponents the way he did the Raptors.

Fisher, among others, thinks the trade talks wore on O’Neal to some degree. O’Neal refused to speak to reporters the day after the deadline and was said to be upset upon hearing the Suns had investigated trying to send him to Portland. He has since gone out of his way to compliment Suns GM Steve Kerr, who “called me and asked me what I thought.” Still, that has only raised skepticism that O’Neal is using his praise for Kerr as a veiled shot at Sarver.

O’Neal has never exited well. He ripped Lakers owner Jerry Buss and GM Mitch Kupchak for trading him to Miami then later criticized Heat president Pat Riley after he was sent to Phoenix. He now calls both trades “all about business.”

“I’m an up-and-down kind of guy,” O’Neal joked. “I get in and get under people’s skin and all that stuff. But you will remember me. That’s all that matters.”

The Suns remembered enough of what O’Neal did for the Lakers and Heat to gamble he could do the same for them. Since his arrival, however, the Suns have failed him more than he has them.

From Terry Porter’s hiring to the trade of Raja Bell and Boris Diaw for Jason Richardson, the Suns have been victimized by bad decisions and, more recently, bad luck. Unable to find a suitable offer for Stoudemire, the Suns opted to keep their All-Star forward, replace Porter with assistant Alvin Gentry and try to make a playoff push. The team quickly recaptured some of its confidence under Gentry only to learn an hour after the trade deadline that Stoudemire would likely be lost for the remainder of the season because of an eye injury. Steve Nash then rolled his ankle on Tuesday, leaving the Suns to face the Lakers without either their starting point guard or power forward.

dantian wrote:Shaq has been great as far as being prepared as a pro player. It's everything around him in Phoenix that's the problem.
However, if we do get into playoffs and Amare comes back then, we'd have a deeper, better battle-tested team to take the playoff run. The recent woes might turn out blessing in disguise.

Phx4Life08 wrote:It's hard to feel bad for a guy that makes 20,000,000 a year. For that much money I'll move where ever or do what ever you want

The Diesel wrote:I'll bump this thread in-case someone missed it because I think everybody should read this article...it's really good.

I also feel bad for him because the critics have blamed him for Amare underachieving this year even though Amare averaged 29/10 last year AFTER Shaq came to Phoenix.

Amare underachieving was because of Terry Porter, not Shaq.

The Diesel wrote:This isn’t about whether O’Neal can play, but whether he should.