TheCambyManVol3 wrote:Wow this thread exploded. My thoughts on shaq:
The man is an absolute legend, his size and skills (which are still overlooked unbelieveably) are amazing. I'll never forget the level of excellence he achieved in 2000 and 2001.
He is outspoken, but I like that from an athlete. I can't stand players that say what people want them to say. I love it when a player (or anyone for that matter) gets up and says somthing becuase they believe in it.. not for attention, not for admiration, but becuase they believe it.
IMO, Shaq was hurt alot more than he let on by the lakers getting rid of him. Remember the sunday conversation on sportscenter? He pretended to be vengeful and all that... but he was hurting. "When I first started playing, I always thought that a guy like Shaquille O’Neal would be untradeable. However, if you look at the history of the game, sometimes it happens to the best of them. When Dominique Wilkins got traded, I was sick. When Patrick Ewing got traded, I was really sick. You know what I’m sayin’? When Jerry Krause didn’t want to take care of Mike, and fired Phil, I was very sick. So this tells me there’s no loyalty in sport, and I understand that. And being that you understand that, you know how to deal with it."
I think Shaq was hurt that he got dealt, and i was as weel and i dont even like the lakers. I hated kobe for it.. but then i thought about it and over time, is it kobes fault? Shaq was the one who wanted an outrageous extension, he wanted to be first informed on all team moves. He wanted to much.Shaq, as great as he is, he's not bigger than Michael Jordan. MJ even had his limits. The bulls pulled the plug on the championship team after the lockout. And Jordan never was given gm-type powers with the bulls, except when the bulls wanted to bring in rodman, when management asked pippen and jordan what they thought. Shaq did want too much. But i think the lakers could have done more to ease the situation, like trying to talk to him, and if shaq refused, then fuck him. But this isn't kobes fault.
I cant wait till the heat/lakers game tho.. i havent been this hyped for a regular season game since the rockets played the bulls in 97, when the rockets had just got barkley and te bulls were still as dominating as ever.
Wussup Camby, yet another member from back in the days that I had great intelligent debates with! Great, back to basketball instead of bullshit....
Reading your post I think you have forgotten one teensy-weensy thing:
It was Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal who DEMANDED to be traded so how in the world could he be hurt by that? In fact, wasn't it Shaq who supplied a list of teams that he found acceptable to be dealt to? Let's not lose sight of actual events here.....
He listed teams such as Dallas, Sacramento, Miami, Orlando, New Orleans and a few other "warm weather" cities. Just read the interview once more:
- on one hand, he was shocked and dismayed that Kupchak dealt him

(That's what you wanted Shaq)
- then he eludes to the fact that Shaunie O'Neal always wanted a home on the beach in Miami
Shaquille should give himself a new nickname: "The Big Contradiction" Look at the facts:
- Shaq had a grandfathered contract and wanted an extension before it ran out, why? Because of the stipulations of the original contract signed in 1996 before the Collective Bargaining Agreement took hold, he would have to keep extending to make the same astonomical sum of money.
A sum of money Dr. Jerry Buss simply wasn't comfortable paying O'Neal. We would have had him under contarct until 2008/9 especially based on injuries and his aversion to treadmills and low carb diets.
In January he offered Shaq $45,000,000 dollars in an extension which Shaq DENIED saying that it wasn't enough! Jerry was never close to Shaq they way that he was with Magic, Cooper, Rambis and most recently Kobe. So Dr. Buss had no problem ORDERING mitch to trade him while he vacationed in Italy leaving his GM to "sit in the fire"
- look at that Laker team last year, sure before the season started people were predicting 70 wins and the like but I knew better. Detroit effectively exposed our major weakness:
LACK OF DEPTH Why was the talent level so thin once you got past the big four? HIS CONTRACT. Let's look at some numbers, shall we?
Miami Heat Salaries http://hoopshype.com/salaries/miami.htm
Shaq makes more than the rest of the team COMBINED. Shaq also makes more than the whole UTAH JAZZ, yet he wanted more $$$. Imagine the audacity, the sheer gall....
Now, how was this all Kobe's fault? Is Kobe an arrogant butt-head, yes he is. I'm a Laker fan and a Kobe fan but the truth is the truth but he had absolutely no bearing on Shaquille's situation. SHAQUILLE and his demands (money and then eventually a trade demand) had bearing on his situation.
Of course Shaq is a legend but it still doesn't afford him the right to disregard a franchise's financial situation for his own personal gain. Remember Kevin Garnett got his grand-fathered contract restructured so the franchise could acquire guys like Spree, Cassell and Olowokandi (yuck) why couldn't Shaq do the same? Do you think he's even capable of such a self-less act? And why isn't his selfishness lauded like Kobe's is?
It's because Shaq has a great sense of humor and is more personable, but he's as much of a selfish butt-head as Kobe is!
Ask yourselves that while you buy into the propoganda that "Kobe got rid of Shaq." A very popular notion because Kobe is so haughty and self involved, very easy to shift the blame on someone that you don't like and never liked anyway wouldn't you agree?
All I ask is for the basketball fans here to put away the silly biases and begin thinking critically. You're free to hate Kobe as much as you want, in fact, why not cross your fingers that he gets caught under the basket for one of the Diesel's monster-jams come Dec. 25th! I understand, y'all probably can't stand Kobe the way I can't stand C-Webb (but that's another story

) You have EVERYright to!
But do not lie to yourselves intelligent basketball fans (except for Jack-Off) see the truth and speak the truth. In the immortal words of the NBA on TNT: "
LET THE TRUTH BE TOLD!"