Rambling with Alex

Upon Shaquille O’Neal’s retirement from basketball this past week, it caused me, like many others to reflect on his career.  That’s what  fans like to do when an all-time great retires from their sport. For one, we like to figure out where they rank in the grand scheme of things. Mainly however, we want to convince ourselves we witnessed something special by following this player for the past ten, fifteen or in Shaq’s case, 20 years.

Though I eventually figured out where I would rank Shaq as an all-time great, it took awhile for me to get there. Mainly because all I could think about was how unique Shaq’s career was. We never have and probably never will see anything like Shaquille O’Neal again.

I found this fitting, because my feelings toward Shaq have been unique as well. Like most fans, I usually love a player, hate them or feel indifferently towards them. With Shaq I felt all three ways about him, multiple times throughout his career.

I couldn’t help but love him when he broke in with the Magic, hated him when he teamed up with Kobe Bryant to form a dynasty in Los Angeles, loved him again when he won a title with the Miami Heat, was indifferent for awhile, then loved him again.  At the point of his retirement? I really couldn’t tell you how I feel about him. I just don’t know.

He bounced around six teams, leaving himself without a franchise that has really embraced him as their own.

Three times upon leaving a team (Magic, Lakers, Heat), he shrewedly created a controversey. He blamed Penny Hardaway’s arrogance for leaving the Magic, when really he just wanted to live in Los Angeles.  When they dumped him for his poor conditioning he deflected blame by declaring war on Kobe, even refusing to acknowledge who Bryant was in interviews the whole next year (“Kobe Who?”). When Miami got rid of him because he looked washed up and out-of-shape, he played the whole “I feel betrayed by Pat Riley” card, again diffusing the fact, that he was indeed out of shape and past his prime. He would make a great politician.

Then again, it’s not like Shaq was a bad guy. Steve Kerr has talked about how Shaq would go to Wal-Mart after home games and hang out by the cash register to pay for customers and just hang out with them. Outside of Charles Barkley and Kevin McHale, he had the best sense of humor of any NBA player to play in the past 25 years. He had a lot of nicknames.  He called himself “The Big Aristotle” for his composure and insights during interviews. Journalists and others gave O’Neal several nicknames including  “The Diesel”,  “Superman”, “The Big Shaqtus”, and  “Dr. Shaq” (after earning his MBA), to name a few. I like to call him the “The Great Shaqtini” myself.

There’s no doubt Shaq was a great player.  First of all, he was 7’1, 325 pounds with softer hands than a baby’s behind, a smooth jump hook and a mean drop step.  He was a physical presence like none the NBA has ever seen, yet had a skill set as good as any center in NBA history.

In the 2000 NBA Finals he averaged an absurd 38 points and 17 rebounds per game. His performance in the 2001-02 and 2002-03 Finals didn’t lag much, as he averaged 33 points and 16 rebounds and 36 points and 12 rebounds. He was MVP in all three series. That just shows, when Shaq focused he was the most dominant player on the planet.

However, basketball was only his primary focus in one season (2000), and the other 19 he was distracted by other things.

 In the 90′s he mistakenly thought he could act and rap. He played a magical genie in the movie Kazaam, which wasn’t even awful in a fun way, it was just awful. He starred in the movie Blue Chips. He released five rap albums, guest starred on sitcoms, co-hosted Monday Night Raw and starred in three different reality shows of his own.

Shaq turned out to be the least competitive superstar of all time. He enjoyed winning but wasn’t crushed by losing. He coasted on physical skills. Basketball just wasn’t as much fun as everything else happening in his life.

  In his prime, Shaq should’ve been the MVP every season, yet he only won one regular season MVP his whole career. He averaged 23 points and 11 boards for his career. Very good, but should’ve been better. He won four titles, but got swept out of the playoffs six other times, including the 1995 finals where he got schooled by Hakeem Olajuwon.

He had the potential to be a top-five player of all time. Instead, I have him around the 15th greatest of all time, and as the fifth best center of all time, behind Bill Russell, Kareem-Abdul Jabaar, Wilt Chamberlain and Hakeem Olajuwon. He left a lot on the table in my opinion. But then again, my opinion doesn’t really matter.

Shaq seemed more than satisifed with his career when he announced his retirement at his house, which has a lake for a backyard and the choice of dipping into his swimming pool (19 feet deep to accommodate Shaq-dives), and  which apparently also had plenty of space for camera setups inside and TV trucks out front.

The entire compound served as a reminder of what the self-described poor kid from Newark, N.J., accomplished by adhering to the lessons from his parents. He may not have fulfilled his potential as a basketball player, but his success as a whole has been larger than himself. And that’s pretty damn large.