I will never confess to being a big NBA fan. I have always preferred the collegiate game, only watching the pros come playoff time. This year, however, will be different. For the first time I can remember, I am extremely excited for the upcoming NBA season, set to tip off on Tuesday, for one simple reason: I will feel no guilt rooting for Shaq.
See, you couldn't root for the Lakers, not when they were that loaded. It's akin to rooting for the Yankees or the Cowboys in the 1990s -- people expect them to win. I, like much of America, love underdogs. So, while Shaquille played in Los Angeles, I bit my tongue and rooted against him -- well more against Kobe, and Shaq by association.
Shaq took the money back in 1996 and headed west for the glamour and glitz of Hollywood, leaving Penny Hardaway in Orlando and breaking up what had the potential to be one of the best duos in basketball history.
After starting a movie career with so much promise ("Blue Chips" was a classic -- and I'm not kidding here), Shaq fizzled with "Kazaam" and "Steel."
He also had a brief stint as a rapper, putting out two albums with songs such as "Still Can't Stop the Reign" and "Biological Didn't Bother."
Still, Shaq remained dominant on the court. He has averaged 27.1 points and 12.0 rebounds per game over his career, racking up one regular season MVP award in 1999-2000 and claiming NBA Finals MVP in each of the Lakers' three consecutive championships.
With the maligned Bryant in the backcourt, Diesel won three consecutive rings but grew especially upset with the Kobe regime, setting a career low for scoring last season. He demanded a trade and received one, returning to the Sunshine State.
At the time, people said he was over-the-hill, and his numbers indicated the same. He said he didn't get the ball enough. I'm inclined to believe Shaq. When he was asked in a press conference if his best years were behind him, he answered with what he termed a "classic Shaquille O'Neal quote."
"I'm like toilet paper, toothpaste and certain amenities -- I'm proven to be good," he said. "I've still got five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 years left."
For the first time in years, Shaq enters the season motivated, healthy and focused on basketball, not entertainment. He said he believes that he was not given his due credit for the Lakers' titles, and spent the summer working hard. Last year he teetered around 350 pounds; he's down in the 320 range now.
He has guaranteed that he will be in top physical shape because his wife lets him walk naked on the beach, and he said he needs to look good when walking naked on the beach.
Hampered by a nagging injury on his big toe last season, Shaq responded to reporters inquiries about his feet by saying that "everything is fine, including my butt. Would you like to see it?"
He and Kobe had waged quite a war of words in the media over the summer. Phil Jackson has weighed in with the Big Fella. It was worse than a Robin fight on Real World San Diego. It was, without doubt, a real live soap opera. The two finally meet on the court on Christmas Day, and what a game it will be. Think Shaq can give himself a better present than dominating the prima donna Bryant? He will too, and my present to myself will be to watch.
Shaq's personality (coupled with Kobe's sexual assault trial) makes it hard not to come down on the Big Fella's side. He once called his game the Pythagorean Theorem because it can't be solved, and he is commonly known as the Big Aristotle.
He has referred to himself as the league's sexiest seven-footer for 12 years now, and when asked of the excitement in Miami over his arrival, he said "that has nothing to do with basketball. That's just because I'm sexy."
His Heat are also my sexy pick to win the Eastern Conference over defending champion Detroit, edging out the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Heat, however, will fall to Tim Duncan and the Spurs in the NBA Finals as Duncan, remaining the most under-appreciated player in the league, secures his third championship.
Other things in the magic ball:
-- Kobe will set a career-high in points, but also will take a league-record number of shots, and the Lakers, without Shaq, will struggle to make the playoffs and lose in the first round.
-- The Wizards will again miss the playoffs, as Kwame Brown continues to struggle. The Wiz don't re-sign him, he goes somewhere else and flourishes next season in a new town.
-- Tracy McGrady decides to pass the ball with a capable big man on his team. He and Yao Ming, finally able to work without a translator, make the Western Conference Finals.
-- Carmelo Anthony goes the whole season without getting caught again for possession of marijuana; Lamar Odom, back in Los Angeles, does not.
With the World Series ending, don't fill the void in your life with schoolwork -- fill it with NBA basketball. And watch Shaq.
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