The Big Clog

The Big Clog

            Shaquille O’Neal is set in stone for the hall of fame. There is no denying that. The 15 time All Star’s resume consists of 1 MVP award, Rookie of the Year, 3 All-Star Game MVP’s, 3 finals MVP’s (6 finals appearances), 2 scoring titles, while ranking 5^th all time in points, 15th in rebounds, and 7^th in blocks. Roll that up into one of the most entertaining basketball players of all time and you got yourself the Big Diesel.

            Unfortunately, after a nasty divorce with the Lakers (lets not get into that right now) Shaq went on to win another title in Miami. The following year though, was an injury plagued one for O’Neal, and was eventually traded again to the Phoenix Suns. After two consecutive visits to the Western Conference finals and a second round exit, the Suns believed that swapping Shawn Marion for O’Neal was their missing piece to an NBA championship. Only, their whole identity for which they were known for had become somewhat ambiguous.  Rather then have O’Neal integrate himself into the system, the Sun’s system had to integrate itself into Shaq’s liking. Were they still the run-and-gun team that helped them in their deep playoff runs? Not really, not with Shaq. Where they a half court team that would run plays? Not very well. After a full year with “The Big Cactus,” Phoenix missed the playoffs for the first time in 5 years.

            The Shaquille O’Neal experiment in Phoenix was definitely a failure. Shaq continued to reach his individual accolades, slowly climbing his way on the all time scoring list, and sharing MVP honors at the All-Star game, ironically, with Kobe Bryant, but couldn’t lead Phoenix to even an 8^th seed. Now here comes the interesting part. After little success in Phoenix, O’Neal is dealt to Cleveland.

            A ring for the king has been Shaq’s motto since becoming “the new 7 foot kid in town,” but at this rate, Lebron James has got a better chance winning a ring elsewhere, which is good news for the hungry teams with cap space in 2010. It’s ironic how Phoenix has done so well before Shaq arrived, terribly with his presence, and now, is thriving with him out of the line-up. Now lets move over to the Cavs, a team that boasted a 67 win record last year while only losing 2 home games all year. Their current record is 4-3, with two of those losses already being at home.

            Shaq was brought over for the main purpose to clog the lane when defending big centers such as Dwight Howard, whom the Cavs lost to on their way to the NBA finals last year; that is exactly what he’s doing, clogging the lane. Lebron and Shaq have two of the most magnetic personalities in the NBA off the court, yet on the court, I don’t see their chemistry evolving into wins. Shaq takes away from Lebron anytime he scores. The middle is clogged by an overage, overweight center way past his prime. Just like the Suns, Cleveland was one step away from the NBA finals, and unfortunately for Lebron and the whole city of Cleveland, it’s going to learn the hard way that the Big Clog, Shaquille O’Neal, is not the answer.