SHAQ TWEETS, "I'M RETIRING"

[Piotr Rasputin]

I always found him very pleasant to deal with.

Which is why the narrative regarding his L.A. years remained friendly for so long. He was "FUNNY!!!!" and the media ate it up.

Had he spent less time making jokes and more time busting ass in the wright room and the gym, there would be absolutely no debate as to his greatness. Free throws notwithstanding, he would be regarded by some as the greatest center to ever play the game.

He had all the tools: size, footwork, quickness, power. Yet he finished with a single MVP, made quite clear in L.A. that he didn't care to do anything in the offseason other than eat, and also spent time after leaving L.A. acting like one of the most hateful superstars in the league.

Many will write today about how "FUNNY!!!!" Shaq was. The serious NBA analysts will likely wonder how great he COULD have been.

You would know better than I, but I always thought Shaq was so dominant in his prime that the league would be completely justified in giving him the MVP every year. But since they couldn't/didn't want to, that's why he only has one. Even as it stands, and his perceived shortcomings, he's a top 5 center of all time.

He WAS dominant. Some pundits said he should be MVP every year when he was in his prime. Some also said he should be better.

So, let's accept that Shaq's prime was about 1997 (age 25) to 2004 or so (and that's being nice, considering how much he had let himself go by then):

1996-97: Karl Malone. Probably should have been Jordan, speaking of players who could be MVP every single year.
1997-98: Jordan. No question.
1999: Malone. They had to give it to someone, and the lakers didn't really set the world on fire. Shaq WAS "least valuable wannabe GM," and his plea for "a thug and a shooter" lost the teams depth in Eddie Jones and Elden Campbell (OK, both were gutless playoff performers), and got them Glen Rice and Dennis Rodman.
1999-2000: Shaq. The only year in which he showed up in shape, having worked on his touch away from just dunking, and the Lakers played as they should from November to April, with a lot of hiccups in the playoffs.
2000-01: Allen Iverson. How cute. Pretty scorer. MVP?
2001-02: Tim Duncan. I can see the need to give Duncan his first, but that year's MVP was Jason Kidd. Like Barkley in 1992-93, his arrival transformed a previously middling franchise into a contender.
2002-03: Duncan again. This was the year Shaq pulled his "I got hurt on company time, I'm gonna heal on company time" bullcrap that cost the Lakers home court in the playoffs and ultimately got a lot of Laker fans (including me) eager to see what the team could get for his fat, lazy ass. People like Fisher and Kobe showed up in fall 2002 in the best shape of their lives, looking for a fourth title that Shaq ultimately cost them.
2003-04: Kevin Garnett. Like Malone a decade before, I guess it was his time. And he was out of his mind that year. Did he run his mouth and hit himself in the chest as much back when he was an awesome NBA player?

Really, there was only one year when Shaq was clearly robbed. And even in 2000-01, it's not like the Lakers set the world on fire until March. Before that, he was pulling his "Ya gotta feed the big dog!" crap.

 

[Henry Wadsworth Opposite]

I can still remember having a fantasy draft with my buddies in college right before Shaq's rookie year. Mind you, we are talking about Jordan in his prime, David Robinson, Barkley, etc. Shaq was taken with the first pick of the draft.

What kind of a loser am I that we were playing fantasy basketball that far back?

a pretty damn big loser

 

[Batman]

In honor of Shaq, here's a Sporcle quiz asking to list everyone he ever joined in a starting lineup. Ninety-one players in all. Good luck.

http://www.sporcle.com/games/LucasEwalt/nbashaqsstartinglineups

 

[CarltonBanks]

I honestly thought his size and the expectation that he would dominante worked against him in some MVP voting. Shaq would carry a team for a month and the response would be, "Hey, the guy is 7-3, 325 with the quickness of a guard. He is supposed to do that." Plus his size made him the hardest player in history to officiate. He would take shots that would make other players stumble, and it barely registered on him. He got fouled more than any player I have ever seen and they did not call most of them.

Great, great guy as well. The players these days should take note of how he treats children. He was a big, funny guy that did not take himself (or the NBA) too seriously...and that offends some of the "purists." The NBA will be a worse place without Shaq in it.

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

I honestly thought his size and the expectation that he would dominante worked against him in some MVP voting. Shaq would carry a team for a month and the response would be, "Hey, the guy is 7-3, 325 with the quickness of a guard. He is supposed to do that." Plus his size made him the hardest player in history to officiate. He would take shots that would make other players stumble, and it barely registered on him. He got fouled more than any player I have ever seen and they did not call most of them.

Great, great guy as well. The players these days should take note of how he treats children. He was a big, funny guy that did not take himself (or the NBA) too seriously...and that offends some of the "purists." The NBA will be a worse place without Shaq in it.

""I won't be devalued," Shaq said. "Never, ever devalued. I will never take less than what I am worth.

"I'm the one that's bringing the players in anyway. And I can bring in players for no money. I've done that before. I've been the general manager of this team for the last two years.

"So I don't want to hear that crap about blah-blah-blah, blah-blah-blah. Because I'm the one who's bringing them in. I'm the one making the phone calls."

"Shaquille O'Neal once famously yelled out to Lakers owner Jerry Buss to "pay me" in the middle of a preseason game."

http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles/lakers/post/_/id/19893/thoughts-on-shaq-retiring

Oh yeah, he's a great guy. Class act.

 

[sgreenwell]

I honestly thought his size and the expectation that he would dominante worked against him in some MVP voting. Shaq would carry a team for a month and the response would be, "Hey, the guy is 7-3, 325 with the quickness of a guard. He is supposed to do that." Plus his size made him the hardest player in history to officiate. He would take shots that would make other players stumble, and it barely registered on him. He got fouled more than any player I have ever seen and they did not call most of them.

Great, great guy as well. The players these days should take note of how he treats children. He was a big, funny guy that did not take himself (or the NBA) too seriously...and that offends some of the "purists." The NBA will be a worse place without Shaq in it.

I agree with this. The knock on him from curmudgeons will always be that he wasn't in shape and didn't play full seasons, but he was a god damn huge human being. I sometimes feel like you don't want to tinker if it's working, and since he was a monster for Orlando, L.A. and portions of his Heat years, why screw with a good thing? Even with all of his "weaknesses," he was one of top five to top 10 centers of all-time, and his strengths were so strong that it was nearly impossible to find someone to guard him.

 

[sgreenwell]

I honestly thought his size and the expectation that he would dominante worked against him in some MVP voting. Shaq would carry a team for a month and the response would be, "Hey, the guy is 7-3, 325 with the quickness of a guard. He is supposed to do that." Plus his size made him the hardest player in history to officiate. He would take shots that would make other players stumble, and it barely registered on him. He got fouled more than any player I have ever seen and they did not call most of them.

Great, great guy as well. The players these days should take note of how he treats children. He was a big, funny guy that did not take himself (or the NBA) too seriously...and that offends some of the "purists." The NBA will be a worse place without Shaq in it.

""I won't be devalued," Shaq said. "Never, ever devalued. I will never take less than what I am worth.

"I'm the one that's bringing the players in anyway. And I can bring in players for no money. I've done that before. I've been the general manager of this team for the last two years.

"So I don't want to hear that crap about blah-blah-blah, blah-blah-blah. Because I'm the one who's bringing them in. I'm the one making the phone calls."

"Shaquille O'Neal once famously yelled out to Lakers owner Jerry Buss to "pay me" in the middle of a preseason game."

http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles/lakers/post/_/id/19893/thoughts-on-shaq-retiring

Oh yeah, he's a great guy. Class act.

He recruited them Payton and Karl Malone; that worked out pretty well. Better than Mitch Kupchak throwing millions at Steve Blake, Devean George and other stiffs.

 

[Guy_Incognito]

I remember watching him at LSU, dunking all over the place as a freshman, Vitale shrieking like a lunatic "HE'S ONLY 18 YEARS OLD!!" over and over, and realizing that he was only a year older than me.

 

[Starman]

Finished his career 1-22 on 3PFGs.

 

[MileHigh]

Finished his career 1-22 on 3PFGs.

Free throws? Sorry, misread.

Big lug. Hilarious one-liner after next and enjoyed being in the SoCal market working when he was in his prime. His reaction on the alley-oop to all but clinch Game 7 of the West finals after being down 15 early in the fourth was tremendous. 15-1 in the playoffs in 2001. Dressing up as Santa every Christmas Eve in South Central and giving out gifts. His many times being sheriff's deputy in whatever county he was living in. He had fun everywhere he went.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

I honestly thought his size and the expectation that he would dominante worked against him in some MVP voting. Shaq would carry a team for a month and the response would be, "Hey, the guy is 7-3, 325 with the quickness of a guard. He is supposed to do that." Plus his size made him the hardest player in history to officiate. He would take shots that would make other players stumble, and it barely registered on him. He got fouled more than any player I have ever seen and they did not call most of them.

Great, great guy as well. The players these days should take note of how he treats children. He was a big, funny guy that did not take himself (or the NBA) too seriously...and that offends some of the "purists." The NBA will be a worse place without Shaq in it.

I agree with this. The knock on him from curmudgeons will always be that he wasn't in shape and didn't play full seasons, but he was a god damn huge human being. I sometimes feel like you don't want to tinker if it's working, and since he was a monster for Orlando, L.A. and portions of his Heat years, why screw with a good thing? Even with all of his "weaknesses," he was one of top five to top 10 centers of all-time, and his strengths were so strong that it was nearly impossible to find someone to guard him.

I suspect "curmudgeon" translates as "actually watched him play" during that era.

He went from "a god damn huge human being" to "God, is he FAT!" The human body isn't really designed to be 7'3", which is why guys that size always have some variation of toe/foot/ankle/knee issues. He exacerbated that horribly later in his career by being a big fat load. Dude was embarrassing in his last days with the Lakers. He got in shape when he went to Miami because he was pissed and had something to prove. He proved it... and then got fat again.

I generally like Shaq, and at his best he was an enormously dominating player (with more skill than he generally gets credit for). He seems like a genuinely very good guy off the court, away from basketball. But it's absolutely fair to point out that he pissed away big chunks of his career by turning into a fatass.

 

[NickMordo]

In honor of Shaq, here's a Sporcle quiz asking to list everyone he ever joined in a starting lineup. Ninety-one players in all. Good luck.

http://www.sporcle.com/games/LucasEwalt/nbashaqsstartinglineups

40/91 -- and yes, I knew Slava Medvedenko

 

[imjustagirl]

ABC/ESPN should unload the truck on him. Put him in Dancing with the Stars, hell, put him on The Bachelor now in addition to having him try and be the Barkley of their basketball broadcasts.

YOU WILL RESPECT HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH HOOPZ!

 

[deskslave]

If he doesn't make some serious effort to lose some of that weight now that he's retired, he might not make it to 50. And now that he's not playing, it's going to be that much more difficult for him to lose weight.

 

[bigpern23]

If he doesn't make some serious effort to lose some of that weight now that he's retired, he might not make it to 50. And now that he's not playing, it's going to be that much more difficult for him to lose weight.

He didn't make that effort when money, championships, fame and his legacy as a basketball player were on the line. What on Earth makes you think he's going to start now?

 

[Shaggy]

Finished his career 1-22 on 3PFGs.

YouTube the one. It's hilarious. I remember it well.

 

[LongTimeListener]

If he doesn't make some serious effort to lose some of that weight now that he's retired, he might not make it to 50. And now that he's not playing, it's going to be that much more difficult for him to lose weight.

He didn't make that effort when money, championships, fame and his legacy as a basketball player were on the line. What on Earth makes you think he's going to start now?

The nearness of 50.

 

[93Devil]

Shaq was awesome.

I'm probably forgetting someone, but this is the first basketball megastar -- maybe any major pro sport, unless you count that douchebag Favre -- drafted in the 90s to retire due to age/ineffectiveness.

Don't know about the folks here between, say, 29 and 34, but his makes me feel kind of old. I mean, I remember loading up on Shaq and Alonzo Mourning rookie cards back in the day and it really doesn't seem like that long ago.

Griffey Jr. debuted in 1989, so he's on the edge of that as well. Feeling older by the day.

Has there ever been a first-ballot HOFer who played for six different teams?

Adrian Dantley played on seven.

Moses Malone - 10 counting his ABA days

 

[qtlaw]

Niggling thought about Shaq is he only really intimidated on offense not defense; now players probably avoided going to the rim on him because they did not want to run into him but unlike other great centers like Russell, Abdul-Jabbar, Duncan, Chamberlain, he was a very poor shot blocker and did not seem to be a great defender of the rim. When he tried to defend, he appeared to foul hard more than defend.

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

Plaschke just can't stop beating that "Lakers left a lot of titles on the TABLE!!!!!" drum, but he actually adds quite a bit of nuance this time around.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/basketball/nba/lakers/la-sp-plaschke-shaquille-oneal-20110603,0,453904,full.column

He's been a jerk for much of his career, but Shaq certainly handled his retirement press conference with class and style:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=6622805

Well, almost:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Shaquille-O-8217-Neal-8217-s-retirement-press-?urn=nba-wp4360