Shaq Diesel

Nineteen years in the league. Four titles. Three times MVP finals, once MVP season. Golden Olympic medal '96. The sixth shooter, the fourteenth jumper and the seventh blocker in the history of the NBA. Free throw, as you know, he could not possibly guess. The poker Jerry Buss once again showed that he was probably the best owner of an NBA team ever, and Lakers are a great team. A jersey of number 34 in one of the biggest sports organizations in general will no longer be worn. Growing nearly 10 years ago was not pleasant, but in its time, the most dominant basketball player on the planet received an adequate payoff ... "Can you dig it !!"

Where will the Lakers go after the death of a great Dr. Buss is hard to say. If his son is asked a lot, as is the case this season, it may be a very painful period. And on the death bed, Tata Buss proved once more that the Lakers never forget their great and deserving players.

At such moments I always remember Scottie Pippen, who was a bit despised by Jerry Crause, then GM Bulls and their boss Jerry Reinsdorf (otherwise proven skip who was lucky to have Michael Jordan hit him). Pippen was an ever-paid player in the Bulls (even at the strength of his strength was fourth in the team) and expectedly unhappy. On one occasion, Pippen commented on the NBA's organization teams and said: "The Lakers are the biggest, biggest club. Remember what I tell you, Lakers never forget your accountable players. Maybe it does not look right now, but Byron Scott will end his career in the Lakers jersey! "

I remembered this Scottish statement because then Byron was wearing a Vancouver jersey. A year later, Scott ended his NBA career wearing a jersey of one of the two largest teams in the history of the NBA. As Scottie said, Lakers do not forget their. They did not even forget Shaquille.
One of the rare basketball wonders is number 34. Shaq and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (then still called Chris Jackson) shared their debut with LSU for Coach Dale Browne. It's a legendary story when Coach Brown first saw two feet high Shaq in a military base in Germany: "Soldier, who are you rank?" Brown asked. "I have no rank, sir, I am 13 years old," O'Neal replied. "Uh, are you dad nearby?"

Although Abdul-Rauf was perhaps the most explosive shooters in college basketball at that time (he scored 53 points in his third game for the LSU. An outstanding player and I hope there will be room to write about him), they all came to see the mountain from man - Shaq O'Neal. One of my friends who lived in New Oreansans and went to all LG matches at that time, says he remembers the moment when O'Neal came out in his first college game of warming. The hall full of supporters of the LGU was silent, no one was blinking, everyone was probably looking at the greatest man they saw in life. A friend in this story had the opportunity to shake hands with young O'Neal: "He handed me his hand, and his index finger came to my elbow."

Such a phenomenon was not seen on the basketball courts of Wilhelm Chamberlain. Physical predispositions were not from this planet: height 216 cm, weight at 147 kilograms. Hand span 233 cm, reach 380 cm, reflection 87 cm, 28 cm long, sizes 56! He was so mobile and coordinated that every time you looked at him he had to remind himself that he had 216 cm of height. The proportions for such a great man were ideal. Balance due to huge feet perfect. O'Neal just could not get out of the racket. Bill Walton compared Shaq with Wilt, Russell, Reed, Lanier or any other dominant center at one time, but with Charles Barkley: "Only Barkley had this natural explosion, that force you can never get in the gym. a man is born, or you have or not. Shaq had. "

The discipline of his youth was brought by his stepfather, Sergeant Philip Harrison. Harrison reversed his life by switching to Islam, but did not, as most of the faithful, believed in the raising of children in methods of explanation and excessive fingerprinting. Sergeant Harrison was an old school, who punished his children for mistakes with his belt and palms. Most of these "falsifications" have passed Shaq. Sergeant Harrison primarily believed in education, the sport was secondary. For poor grades and indiscipline at school (O'Neal was pre-emptive in the seventh grade of primary because he constantly beat his peers), Shaq got the hardest beat in his life. Later it spread to the basketball court. I'm slapping or punishing each time Shaq would shoot with poludistance: "You want to be the best, do you want to be dominant?" Harrison exclaimed, "Then you have to play under the basket, to knock everything!"

He was really doing everything. In the first NBA season, he halted the construction on a game against New Jersey. She did not crack on her wrist but cut the bar that was holding the board !? Against Phoenix that same year, by typing, he literally made a construction that could no longer be lifted, so they had to put a new basket. He needs to be honest, not Shaq's game was just power. Ball control was exceptional for his dimensions and knew without a problem after a jump in defense to finish the counterattack himself.
What O'Neal did in the flood of boring and silent centers seemed special is his personality and sense of humor. Wilt had allegedly more success in women (he repeated several times that he slept with them 20,000, although he was really far from the truth.) However, he managed to invite the stewardess to satisfy him orally when returning with an economy class with the rest of the team. He put a blanket over his head so that it would not be unpleasant to other travelers. Wilt was always careful). Kareem was probably the most unpopular person in the history of sports, he just wanted to leave him alone. Ewing mostly did not say anything or froze. Robinson was a good boy with stereotyped statements. Hakeem was a stranger. Shaq, on the other hand, danced (see All Star 2007), sang (with variable results), recorded movies (mostly bad), gave phenomenal statements and was generally smiling and in public: "Nobody loves life more than Shaq, said Lebron James.

When David Robinson stated that "Shaq keeps saying that other players are jealous of him, but he does not have anything else anyone would want," O'Neal first made crazy, "Robinson? Who is that? Yeah, that center .. Let him look at this, "and then he took up a large photo on which he slammed over the Admiral. Compared to his teammate Penny, Kobe and Wade have taken the analogy from the movie "Kum" ... "Kobe is Sonny Corleone." He was too stupid to be a boss, but he would do everything to be a boss ... Penny is Fredo ... He thinks he's smart, but not. "Wade is Michael, wise for his years, always knows where his place is."

In the field, Shaq has been "swept up" in the playoffs for such a force too many times. In the first seven years of his career, he drank broom four times (Indiana, Houston, Chicago and Utah). Finals with Orlando reached '95, but then he ruled Hakeem and played perhaps the best basketball in his life. Shaq scored 28 points per game in the final but against Hakeem (MVP finals - 32.8 points, 11.5 rebounds and 5.5 blocks on average) and Drexler could not.

Phil Jackson said a few years ago that Shaquille was the only career path for the regular season to be fully prepared in 1999. So, the season in which Shaq won his first title and the only MVP award in the league.

"I use the season to enter the playoff form," he often said. This is the subject we always return when talking about Shaqu. What would have been devoted to training and physical preparation, that he took more care of his weight. And this is how his career was exceptional, but what if Shaq had famine for victories like Bill Russell? What kind of career would you talk about then?

Shaq had those omissions and periods of anger in the game that followed most of the centers. His concentration was not always at the top level. If he did not get enough balls on a low post, he stopped helping out in defense and releasing the breaks of the outside players (the question of the reporter: "While you got the balls under the basket, the game looked good, but after a while the balls stopped coming into your hands. What? "," It's a story of my life to a brazier ").

Again, none of the Jordan was hence dominant in the NBA finals of Shaquille O'Neal. Duncan, Kobe, Lebron, Wade, Nowitzki, Pierce. No one even approached the true basketball terror that Shaq Diesel performed in the period 2000-2002, over three consecutive titles. Against the Indiane 2000 in six games 38 points, 17 rebounds and two blocks on average!

Against Philadelphia and Dikembe Mutomba 2001 in five games 33 points, 16 rebounds and five blocks on average! Against New Jersey 2002 in four games 36 points, 12 rebounds and four blockages on average! The man was destroying everything that was on his way.

After well-known events in Lakers and his quarrel with Kobe, Shaq was sent to Miami. He used this to disperse a couple of poisonous arrows in the direction of Jerry Buss (on Buss's remark that he did not regret sending Shaq to Miami, he replied, "I do not regret that he loses money and can not get into the playoffs!" Boss's statement that Shaq had come to terms with regards to the difficulty of retaliating against the Lakers, replied: "I needed a real NBA boss like Mickey Arison. Not an old man who hangs out with 18-year-old girls."
After his arrival in Miami, Shaq promised the title and this promise was held in 2006, this time as a second violin behind Dwyana Wade and in tandem with his rivals from the draft class Alonzo Mourning ("And today I do not understand how we won that j .. ... the title. We went out every night. I was chronically unsettling that year, "says Shaq. He was fired from Miami by attempting to physically compete with Pat Riley at one practice (stopped by Mourning at the last minute).

He wanted to reach the fifth title with Steve Nash, Lebron James, and later Pierce and KG but failed. He ended his career in the Boston jersey and watched as a man who did not Kobe Bryant wins the fourth and fifth titles (after defeating Lakers in the final in 2008, Shaq chuckled the famous verse: "Kobe, what's the taste of my butt?")

Shaq's career from this perspective seems terrifying. Nineteen years in the league. Four titles. Three prizes for the MVP finalists. Once MVP season. Golden Olympic medal '96. The winner of the 1994 World Cup in Toronto and the best player of the championship (find those games on Youtube, the unrealistic dominance of the guy who was 21 at the time). Twice the best NBA shooter, ten times the best percentage of the shot from the game. The sixth shooter, the fourteenth jumper and the seventh blocker in the history of the NBA. Free throw, as you know, he could not guess.

The player who earned the most money from basketball in the history of the NBA - $ 292 million, although Kevin Garnett will be overtaking him at the end of this season, and in the next two and Kobe Bryant. They say that Shaq spent most of his money on advertising and sponsors during his career, that most of the money from basketball, unlike the other troubled NBA stars, still has.

In the last moments of his life, Dr. Jerry Buss decided to bury the war ax. He called O'Neal and said, "The big boy does not care, I'll take care of you." Buss made a promise, and Shaq, with his children and his mother, again experienced ovations full of the Staples Center, the hall where he had reached the greatest glory. Suspending tears, he watched his jersey get a place next to Magica, Wiltha and Kareem. Where it belongs anyway.

What are the trends in today's basketball, when we see anything that resembles a dominant center, let alone Shaquille O'Neal. "Can you dig it !!"