Shaq rips the Heat. Riley rips back.

Big Diesel loves to burn them bridges, don't he?

This from the Boston Globe:


NEW YORK—Pat Riley can't understand why Shaquille O'Neal keeps talking about the Miami Heat. Riley responded to O'Neal's criticisms Wednesday with some of his own, saying his former center was wrong to disparage some of his old teammates and trainers in a Boston Globe story.

more stories like this"It's sad that he says those things. We shared so much here, together, for three years, good and bad, 3 1/2 years," Riley said, referring specifically to the Heat's 2006 NBA title. "I just think it's sad that he's got to do that."

Riley dealt O'Neal to Phoenix before the trade deadline, allowing the 36-year-old center the chance to compete for another title instead of sticking around Miami for a last-place finish. O'Neal made it clear how much he prefers his new teammates.

"I love playing for this coach and I love playing with these guys," O'Neal told the Globe. "We have professionals who know what to do. No one is asking me to play with Chris Quinn or Ricky Davis. I'm actually on a team again."

After Phoenix's loss to Boston, O'Neal elaborated, saying that defenses would sag off of Quinn and Davis and he wasn't able to get the ball. Of Riley's comments, O'Neal said colorfully, "I don't (care) how he interpreted it."

Reminded that reporters couldn't use the quote because of the expletive, he said, "Sure you can. You can quote me, brother. You can put an 's,' then the tic-tac-toe, the 'at' sign and then the other symbols."

O'Neal was critical about shots -- as in, not getting enough of them -- often during his tenure with the Heat. This year, he expressed those sentiments in the days that followed a 110-101 loss at Utah on Dec. 3 -- a game where Quinn didn't play and O'Neal and Davis were on court together for 16 minutes, 2 seconds.

He also complained about not getting enough touches two days after going 8-for-15 in a 120-99 loss against Orlando, another game where he and Quinn never were on the court at the same time. Plus, O'Neal got into an argument with Riley during an early season practice, and words got so heated that Alonzo Mourning intervened to keep the two separated.

Keep in mind, O'Neal is the one who repeatedly referred to his Miami coach as "the great Pat Riley" during his time in South Florida. But he also was clearly miffed when Riley pulled him in the first minute of a game at New Jersey earlier this season for blowing a defensive assignment.

Riley said he doesn't have "anything but good feelings for Shaq" and wasn't bothered by any criticism leveled at him. But he said O'Neal has no reason to blame anyone else in the organization for his unhappiness.

"When you're 9-40, we're all frustrated. I mean everybody's at fault, we all were. Everybody was feeling bad and nobody wants that," Riley said.

"He didn't want to be there, he didn't want to play for that kind of situation, 35 years old. He wanted to go to a contender and we sent him there. We sent him to Utopia and we're left here with the carnage and I don't know why he's not happy."

Riley also defended the work of veteran trainer Ron Culp and the team's medical staff, saying O'Neal was out of line to speak poorly of them.

"It's really a shame that he would insult those people like that because they gave him care. They cared," Riley said. "They didn't kiss his butt. They cared about him.

"He can do whatever he wants to do to me. That's OK, I don't care. But those men, they tried. ... That upsets me more than anything."

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3314347

Sooner or later, people will realize that Shaq is an ass who has now left three teams in rancor.

I especially love the sidebar. He once again has the Sentinel frothing over some of his oh-so-funny throwaway lines.

 

Sidebar:

Not only does Shaquille O'Neal have a lot to say about how the Miami Heat franchise is run, he wants to weigh in on the Orlando Magic someday as well.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, O'Neal would like to return to the team that drafted him and take over management when his playing career ends following the 2009-10 season.

He also plans to bring former Heat and current Suns teammate Grant Hill with him.

"Grant will be the team president -- he's a bright guy -- and I'll be the general manager," O'Neal said, according to the newspaper. "I'm serious. They need me down there with the new arena coming. Grant and I are coming to do the job."

O'Neal maintains a home in Orlando.

"A thousand days, and I'm coming home," he said, according to the paper. "I'm going to use what I call my bridge general manager skills. A lot of general managers try to do it themselves. I build bridges. I'll have teammates. All this is in a perfect world. That's my dream, anyway."


Next up: Shaq wants to be God.

 

More and more, it's apparent that keeping Kobe was the right choice.

(Rick Reilly with a brown bunny about Shaq in 5...4...3...)

 

Would this be considered a dick on dick crime?

 

I'm not defending Shaq or what he said, but the guy speaks his mind...

Pat Riley is 100 percent colossally full of shit...

 

Stop the presses: I agree wholeheartedly with Mizzougrad and will buy him a beer for that one.

I'd like to take a moment to congratulate Mr. Riley on his apparently-monumental achievement of actually showing up to coach the Heat on Monday, instead of being in Anaheim while "scouting potential draft picks at the NCAA tournament."

Admittedly the Heat are one of the two worst teams in the association right now, but even under that circumstance I've never seen a coach just bail on his team like this.

(Mizzou: Sam Adams all right?)

 

No doubt about it.

And Kobe's comments look quite legitimized today.

 

Sam Adams is fine... Fat Tire would be better...