Thanks For The Memories Shaq - You Were One Of A Kind!
Saturday, June 04, 2011
Say goodbye to “The Big Aristotle,” “Shaq Fu,” “The Big Shamrock,” “The Big Cactus,” “The Diesel,” and “Superman.” After 19 terrific years in the NBA, Shaquille O’Neal has retired.
Shaq, as only Shaq can do, held a unique press conference at his house to announce his retirement. And, much like the way he carries himself with the media, his teammates and the public throughout his career, he went out with plenty of humor.
The record books will say that O’Neal left the game as the NBA’s fifth all-time leading scorer with 28,596 points. He ranks 12th all-time in career rebounds with 13,099. And he won 4 NBA titles.
But that doesn’t tell the whole story about Shaquille O’Neal. Not even close.
Shaq was one of the few pro athlete that “gets it!” Not only was he a great player on the court, he was a pleasure to deal with off of it.
While some people take life too seriously, Shaq did just the opposite. The big fella usually found humor in every situation he found himself in. And when none was there, he managed to manufacture it.
As both a fan and a member of the working sports media for many years I can tell you that pro athletes interact with the media and the fans in many different ways.
Some are cordial while others are not. Some are charismatic, others boring. Some are serious while others are loosey-goosey. Some are dumb while others are very smart. Shaq embodied the best of all of the aforementioned attributes.
He wasn’t just a great basketball player, he was also a great entertainer.
And unlike some celebrities who have massive egos which need to fed, you get the feeling that it wasn’t about that for Shaq. Instead, it’s almost as if he acted the way that he did because he enjoyed making people laugh and smile. There’s something to be said for that.
It’s a shame to hear some of the talking heads on Boston sports radio bash Shaq for his one injury-filled season with the Celtics. He has been accused of “stealing money” from the team and not working hard to stay in shape and return from injury to help the team. Call me naïve, but I refuse to believe that.
First off, Shaq ‘s salary this season was less than 1.4 million dollars which, by NBA standards, is close to poverty. He probably could have made more by signing with another team last offseason but he wanted to come to Boston to try to win a 5th championship.
Second, we now know that Shaq’s Achilles injury was a lot more serious than we were led to believe during the season when we were told that he was only weeks away from returning. O’Neal admitted as much today.
Shaq said that after talking to his doctor, “the best solution was going in (surgically) and cleaning it up with a 9 month recovery. So I thought it was good business to let Danny (Ainge) know right away so he can go and get some good young talent because (it’s) a beautiful organization and they still got a lot left and I didn’t want to let the same thing what happened last year happen.”
O’Neal went on to say, “I’m a competitor, I’m a fighter and after we lost I was really, really down on myself because I went up there with one mission only and I kind of felt I let the city down and I didn’t want that to happen again.”
Does that sound like a man who would just sit around to collect a paycheck? Not to me.
If there was one thing that I didn’t like about Shaquille O’Neal during his career it was his inability to hit free throws consistently. He even managed to poke fun at himself for that yesterday as well.
What the future holds for Shaquille O’Neal is anyone’s guess. You would think that ESPN or TNT might try to lure him into broadcasting which would make a lot of sense.
Whatever becomes of him, I say, “thank you Shaq!” You couldn’t have done it any better than you did.
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