Throughout his glory days during the new millenium, he was able to, for the most part, not let anyone push him around or tell him what to do. He showed up to the 2000-2001 NBA season training camp considerably overweight, but hey, he was the previous year's NBA MVP and fresh off being named 2000 Finals MVP. He always averaged under 55% from the free throw line, but hey, he got his points by being dominant underneath. He was self-ordained such egotistical nicknames, such as "The Diesel" and "Superman", but hey, no one had the physical ability to handle Shaq in the post. No one dared push him around, until now.
Former "Shaq's Robin" that has since surpassed O'Neal as the most dominant player of this generation, Kobe Bryant, is now pushing O'Neal around, according to Trey Kerby of Yahoo! Sports. He hypothesizes that Shaq's move to Boston is directly because of Bryant. Since their divorce six years ago, Bryant has won two championships, two Finals MVPs, and one season MVP. Shaq has won one championship on a star-studded Miami Heat team in 2006 that was expected to win. After all of this, Kerby is now convinced that O'Neal's recent "travelings" from team-to-team are because of Bryant. What about his move to Miami in 2005? Couldn't that be a direct result to improve emerging young star, Dwayne Wade so that he could surpass Bryant? What about his move to Phoenix in 2008? Couldn't that be a direct result to pose a threat to Bryant's #1 seeded Lakers and counter All-Star forward Pau Gasol's arrival to Bryant's team? And what about his move to Cleveland in 2009? Couldn't that be a direct result to overtake Bryant's Lakers by teaming with Bryant's rival, LeBron James?
All are susceptible assumptions. And if you don't agree, then you're lying to yourself. So I agree with Kerby on a very surfaced level; however, Shaq's antics have been apparent since 2005. He has a never-ending battle within himself with Bryant. Bryant's been pushing the immovable force around since 2005. And Shaq's been quite cooperative.
But what strikes me even more is not that Kerby has realized this now, but how Kerby and other critics of Shaq have been demeaning him because of it. Why are Shaq's antics to move teams to "one-up" Bryant wrong? Since 2005, O'Neal has been on the decline of his career. And it's not that he's been keeping himself out of shape - well, that's not wholly the reason. A guy with that kind of size in such a physical game has a small window of years to shine, and he certainly did shine in his prime by winning three championships in a row. But where does the motivation come after that? How does he add more fuel to the "Diesel"? He decides to pick Bryant as his competition and go from there. That's what's keeping the 38-year old O'Neal going. That's what's keeping him from retirement. When you lose motivation, you retire early and look for a new challenge. Example: the greatest athlete of all time, Michael Jordan. He felt like he wasn't being challenged after the 1993 season, so he moved to baseball. O'Neal didn't want that. And people are criticizing him for looking for that extra motivation that keeps him going for years when he should have retired at least five years ago? No. I applaud O'Neal. I applaud his competitiveness. I applaud his willingness to compete at all costs, even when his body tells him no.
He may appear extremely friendly with Kobe. It may seem like their 2005-2006 feud is over with things like these:
But the aged Shaq is boiling inside to beat the generation's best in Bryant. I think it's great.
- Leather Head
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