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"As the general of this squad, I wouldn't deserve to be an All-Star," O'Neal said Friday evening. "And if they gave me the spot, I wouldn't take it, because I don't want to be given anything."

Somewhere out there, Penny Hardaway and Vince Carter are laughing at these comments.

^

Sounds like the right thing to say...

Here are my thoughts: He's been one of the most dominant player the past decade, a top five center of all time, and and one of the 50 GREATEST to play the game. He's been to five nba finals appearances with 3 different teams. He is a 4 time nba world champ and is a 3 time Finals MVP as well as a regular season MVP. He had a streak of 14 straight allstar appearances and wouldve had an all time mark with another one. besides the accomplishments, hes has one of the best on/off court personalities in the game and is a joy to watch especially in these atmospheres. I wanted to see him there.

He carried the basketball torch from MJ, Pippen, Hakeem, Robinson, Reggie, malone, payton and those guys to the new generation of lebron, wade, and melo, bosh, oden, and the future and i think he deserves a respecful farewell

i know ill get flamed, but i believe he'll be back next year with numbers worth of an appearance. His hip is bothering his game more than his age, hopefully if hes healthy, he'll be back for 1 more...all the greats went out like that, MJ, magic, and i wanna see the same for him

much props to the diesel...

crackjack wrote:

"As the general of this squad, I wouldn't deserve to be an All-Star," O'Neal said Friday evening. "And if they gave me the spot, I wouldn't take it, because I don't want to be given anything."

Somewhere out there, Penny Hardaway and Vince Carter are laughing at these comments.

What do they have to do with this?

Nothing wrong with shaq saying this at all.

I guess not everyone is familiar with a little NBA history.

I wasn't bashing O'Neal with this thread. I was actually praising him for saying exactly the right thing.

Hardaway and Carter are infamous for putting too much value into the all-star game.

Hardaway was voted into the all-star game despite not playing in the regular season due to an injury. He miraculously recovered enough for the all-star game, but he wasn't recovered enough to play for the team that was paying his salary.

Carter also had that one year where he refused to step aside from the starting lineup. He only did so because of pressure from other people. Then, he gave a BS speech about doing it because "it was the right thing".

Some people on RealGM have too much of a lovefest with Vince Carter. What's even more scary is that most of the people obsessed with Vince aren't even Nets fans...

crackjack wrote:I guess not everyone is familiar with a little NBA history.

I wasn't bashing O'Neal with this thread. I was actually praising him for saying exactly the right thing.

Hardaway and Carter are infamous for putting too much value into the all-star game.

Hardaway was voted into the all-star game despite not playing in the regular season due to an injury. He miraculously recovered enough for the all-star game, but he wasn't recovered enough to play for the team that was paying his salary.

Carter also had that one year where he refused to step aside from the starting lineup. He only did so because of pressure from other people. Then, he gave a BS speech about doing it because "it was the right thing".

the vagueness of your comment didn't help

crackjack wrote:I guess not everyone is familiar with a little NBA history.

I wasn't bashing O'Neal with this thread. I was actually praising him for saying exactly the right thing.

Hardaway and Carter are infamous for putting too much value into the all-star game.

Hardaway was voted into the all-star game despite not playing in the regular season due to an injury. He miraculously recovered enough for the all-star game, but he wasn't recovered enough to play for the team that was paying his salary.

Carter also had that one year where he refused to step aside from the starting lineup. He only did so because of pressure from other people. Then, he gave a BS speech about doing it because "it was the right thing".

That whole carter thing was stupid, the man was voted in as a starter, he shouldn't have had to step aside (and i'm saying this as a diehard jordan fan)

Shaq said the right thing

I think it's sad that Shaq doesn't get the spot because the league forced Kareem into his last three All-Star games but it's nice to see that he's being dignified about it.