Sports Views

Shaquille O’Neal, star basketball player for the NBA champion Miami Heat, has announced the formation of The O’Neal Group, a real estate firm that is joining with MDM Development in the creation of the $600 million dollar Metropolitan Miami project, also known as "Met Miami".

So the other day as I was hanging out with Colby and contemplating the nature of the universe, I got to thinking about (are you ready for this? try not to shit…) knitting. I was thinking about the joys of handknit socks and my Hat of Epic Proportions and out of nowhere Shaq jumped into my head. I wondered where the hell they’d possibly get size 22 socks for a dude that big. I mean, these days he’s rich enough to afford his own wing at the Fruit of the Loom plant, but when he was just a Growing Boy, did his mom recruit little old ladies in Germany and Bavaria to knit him socks? She must’ve!

Shaquille O’Neal provided an assist to police over the weekend, trailing a man who allegedly assaulted a gay couple before alerting an arresting officer.

The Cavs are primed and pumped to make some big noise this year! They started last year strong only fo fizzle at the end. This is the year LeBron and Co finally make it. The Cavs addressed their needs by signing Larry Hughes and Donyell Marshall to free agent contracts. Larry is an athletic wing player that can run with LeBron James and Donyell will do the dirty work. Donyell can hit threes and grab rebounds, play defense and be a presence on the floor. Larry will clog passing lanes, get steals and run and gun. They also resigned Zydrunus Ilgauskas which was big. ‘Z is the second best center in the Eastern Conference and the third best in the league behind Shaq and Yao. Look for the best season yet from LeBron James as he continues his jump into the stratosphere. Congrats Cavaliers fans, you are in the basement no longer!

i just heard some good news today, the players of nhl and the league have all agreed and there will be a 2005 season. can i just hear a wup! wup! for the canucks! the players agreed to a salary cap that the owners proposed. to me its not about the money. nhl players are the hardest working athletes out there and they make the least amount. also the nhl hasn’t be subjected to the “larger than life” dramas that the other sport industries have become. it seems that the mlb, nfl, and nba are a bunch of whining, camera hogging, hams with a huge case of the “look at me”. sports went from “hi mom” to high drama only ever seen before in the wwe. look at the kobe v. shaq drama. and whatever happened to “mr primetime” there was a big bag of nothing waiting to happen. it’s these types of things that never happen - so far - in the nhl. the nhl is all about hockey. the players are out there to play, not try and make money off of their image with sponsor contracts. lets face it, it’s not the shoe that makes you faster, it’s you.

UPDATE: Stephen Duncan Jr., who isn’t, I gather related to Tim Duncan, but who is a big Spurs and Jayhawks fans offers some reasons why San Antonio passed on Wayne here and here. RD Baker notes that with the departure of Udonis Haslem (and the gentrification of Christian Laettner), Wayne could be looking at a starting roll playing forward opposite Shaquille O’Neal. If he could only shoot freethrows on Shaq’s behalf, the Heat would be unbeatablee.

Off topic, but fun. The Washington Post reports Shaq graduates from the University of Phoenix with his first Masters (he plans to continue for a second Masters).

Let me preface this by saying that I think Shaquille O’Neal is the greatest big man of our era — and that includes someone I’m heavily biased towards, Houston’s own Hakeem Olajuwon. But Shaq’s body of work speaks for itself. You honestly could give him the MVP trophy just about every season, and nobody really could argue against it convincingly. But a lot of it depends on how you define your MVP. If you define it by how a team would do without their player, I think Nash gets the edge. Miami was a playoff team last year (albeit in a weaker Eastern Conference) without Shaq, the Suns were awful without Nash.

Another thing that comes in to play is that sports fans and media people are reluctant to label a team as “great” until they have success over a number of years. People were hesitant to use the “dynasty” label with the Patriots until they won their third Super Bowl in four years. People were hesitant to call the Shaq-Kobe Lakers “great” until they three-peated.

I know I know, Rasheed Wallace is a nut. There is no conspiracy. I want a Game 7. There is going to be nothing more fun to watch, than these two teams battling with each other to the end. Its now the end of the 1st Quarter of Game 6 and its a 1 point game, of course. It does look like Shaq has his legs under him. I think the series will come down to how Ben Wallace can perform. He was such a presence last year and its suprising how he’s been a total wallflower the entire playoffs. Don’t just pad the stats Ben. You need to put...

I never thought I'd say it, but god bless Shaq. Even though the family has yet to formally accept the offer, it was an overwhelmingly touching thing for an NBA player to do.

I was not that surprised the HEAT beat the pistons. But, what surprised me was the pistons lossing their cool. I think Shaq was the main reason why the pistons lost their cool. The pistons had to foul Shaq because Shaq was just to tough and in the mist of fouling out; Shaq still made his shots!!! Pistons better be scared because like i predicted once here before this thing is gonna end in game 5 or 6

In any event, Detroit has way too much depth and postseason experience not to win this series. They’ll end it in six — possibly five if Shaq doesn’t return to form.

But Shaq can take solace that with D-Wade at his side, the Heat will make another playoff push next year. The same can’t be said for his former sidekick in L.A.

It seems Shaq wants to be an undercover cop…. Yeah, cause he blends in…Well at least online he would. He’s reportedly joined a Department of Justice task force that ferrets out Internet based sex offenders.

Mark Cuban (blogmaverick.com) vs. Mike Celizic (MSNBC): Cuban, as we all know, is the dot com billionaire who purchased the Dallas Mavericks. He's also a pretty interesting blogger, which makes him pending the appeal in this case in California a journalist. Recently, Celizic wrote a column questioning why the Mavericks didn't take an opportunity to trade for Shaquille O'Neal last off-season. This set Cuban off. Cuban has a particular distaste for journalists who don't call him to check their facts, and in this case, Cuban says he would have told...

Verdict: A draw. Cuban's blog has revolutionized the idea that even billionaires have tools to set the record straight. On one hand, Cuban is definitely correct to point out that Celizic should have contacted him for comment. But on the other hand, Cuban needs a lesson in the basic difference between facts and opinions. Facts are things you can check for veracity. Commentaries, such as the one that Celizic wrote, have both fact and opinion. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference, but the notion that the Mavericks could have had Shaq is unquestionably...

After all the questioning, Shaq did end up starting for the Miami Heat and came out of the gates strong, hitting on his first 4 field goals. He ended the game with 20 points in 33 minutes on 9-of-14 shooting. Eddie Jones was the Heats leading scoring with 22 points, while Dwayne Wade only had 16 points on 7-25 shooting.

I've been a bit of a Miami Heat skeptic for most of the season. Obviously, they're a very good team. Obviously, they're better than the Wizards. But "better than the Wizards" only gets you so far in the NBA. So much better than the Wizards that you can sweep them in four games even with Shaq riding the pine for the road games and clearly nowhere near 100 percent in the earlier ones, however, is another matter. Assuming Shaq gets healthy, Detroit (or Indiana!) has a lot to fear.

This article reports that Stern greeted with boos in Indiana. The article reports that NBA commissioner David Stern was booed by Indiana fans. It takes for granted that the boos were the result of Stern's decision to suspend several Pacers after the Detroit brawl. But I don't think that's the whole story. There is a conspiracy theory among Pacer fans, probably unfounded that the NBA has consistently offered the Pacers unfavorable officiating in the playoffs from a desire to see bigger names and bigger market teams in the Finals -- Shaq when he was...

As was I checking into the Oakland Hilton this evening, I noticed some rather tall gentlemen in line with me. That, the extra security, and the line of fans outside the door prompted me to ask the front desk clerk if a basketball team might be in the vicinity. "Yes, it's the LA Lakers." Then I recognized Kobe and Shaq, though the others only looked vaguely familiar.

Long story short, I ended up going to a basketball game this evening with a friend. We sat with the "large male dance squad," which is a story in itself. The hot dog was good. The game, eh. Apparently I'm still sports-appreciation impaired.

May has been a slow month so far. I don't typically watch other teams that often, but I have caught a few of the Heat games. Mostly because they are Florida's "other" team and Shaq plays for them. If the Heat don't go all the way this year, they are a lock for next year. Shaq has dropped a lot of weight; add another summer of training and the rest of league is in trouble.

Shaq and the Miami Heat defeated the Washington Wizards 105-86 in the opening game of their Eastern-Conference-semifinals playoff series. While Shaq and his team took game one, Steve Nash was awarded the league’s MVP award. In very close balloting, Nash received 65 first-place votes, while Shaq garnered 58 first-place votes. Including all voting, Nash barely edged Shaq with 1,066 to 1,032 total points.

Expected outcome - Miami normally doesn’t pay much attention to the offensive boards, but it is there for the taking if they want it. Washington normally doesn’t play defense much and doesn’t foul a lot, but they’re going to have all sorts of difficulty with Shaq, so expect something close to a normal amount of free throws for the Heat. Washington will gamble for turnovers, and have some luck with it.

This past weekend, I attended my first professional sporting event. It was called How the New Jersey Nets can only be from New Jersey. Those Nets. They have Heart. They can have Zing. And even a dollop of skewed, lack of open-space-panache. But they can also be scrubby. Like they were on Sunday, against the blaze of the Miami Heat. Shaq didn't even do anything; he ran up and down the court a couple times for cardiovascular upkeep.

Also on this week's celebrity shit list: Shaquille O'Neal, who, with his wife, recently blew $50,000 on his son's 2nd birthday party. Question: what two-year-old needs a $50,000 birthday party? None. This was about his parents' social status, not the needs of the kid. Of course, as Jay pointed out, it was most likely Shaq's wife who planned the fete, as no man in his right mind would blow $50K on a kid's party. I tend to agree with Jay that this party was more likely about Shaq's wife showing off for the friends and relations ("Look how much...

I mean there are some good stories in the playoffs and I still don't care. The Bulls are back in the playoffs since MJ left. The Wizards are back in the playoffs, I suppose they are my home team. The Lakers are not in the playoffs for the first time since...I don't even know. Shaq is in Miami and they look poised to win, the ultimate slap in the face to Kobe Braynt.

And the winner is .. Shaquille O’Neal. He’s simply the Most Valuable Player in the game. He transcends the game. He’s such a difficult player to defend and he keeps you trying to figure things out about him as a player. This isn’t a guy who’s been in the league for three years. He has been a dominant player for more than a decade and he cannot be stopped. Period. He’s come in to Miami and made the Heat one of the top five most popular teams in the game. I can’t take any skin off guys like Dwyane Wade and...

Or dancer. Or whatever. But hey, it’s not impossible. Shaq and Wade are an amazing duo, and the Heat could certainly get hot and win this thing. And if that happens, who knows? Going into next season, Pat Riley will have a much better idea of what he has, and maybe they can retool and be even stronger. Then, comparisons with those other teams will not be as outlandish.

I love Iverson - he's my favorite NBA player (with the possible exception of Carmelo Anthony - go Cuse!) and he led the league in scoring at 30.7 PPG, free throws made, and was 2nd in steals and 5th in assists. He certainly helped his team more than Kobe, and the Sixers had a better record to show for it, but he also led the league in turnovers and shot worse than Kobe (42.4%). In the meantime, Shaq absolutely dominated offensively and defensively, shooting 60.1% for season on his way to 22.9 PPG, 10.4 Reb, and 2.3 Blocks. ...

Unfortunately for the Nets, their reward for finishing the season on a four-game winning streak is a first round date with Shaq, Dwayne Wade, and the rest of the Miami Heat, who earned the top seed in the East by finishing with a conference and franchise best 59-23 record.

The Nets squad that finished the season, led by Kidd and Carter — the NBA’s best backcourt — bears as much resemblance to the New Jersey team that started the season with 2-11 record as Shaq does to Shawn Bradley. Had the Nets began the season with the Kidd-Carter tandem happily ensconced as their starting backcourt, the Nets would’ve run-n-dunked their way to the Atlantic Division title. Throw superlative wing Richard Jefferson, who’s likely to be in the Nets’ starting line-up when they tip-off at 3:30 this Sunday, into the...

Chris Webber could be seen after Wednesday’s practice showing teammate Samuel Dalembert some ways to guard Miami’s Shaquille O’Neal, tricks that Webber picked up during his long career with the Sacramento Kings, playing against O’Neal’s Los Angeles Lakers.

Just imagine how lucky Dalembert would be to receive tutoring from someone who’d actually beaten Shaq in a playoff series?