One of the worst habits of journalists, including myself, is dawn sentences like this: "There will never be another ..." We do it full the time, caught in the moment, unable to dwell upon the immutable actuality that there is an unstoppable tide to history, players and events coming and going, coming besides going, nearing and going.
Still, I'm going to imagine this:
There will never be another Shaquille O'Neal. There bequeath be (and has been) more select players, further sharp may flush be whole enchilada funnier players (though not many), but de facto was the circle of the two that made Shaq sui generis. "Nobody roots now Goliath," Wilt Chamberlain once said, also that was just ... until Shaq came along.
It figures that he would announce his retirement via Twitter. He was among the first athletes to put the "social" in extroverted media. Shaq was the world's biggest circus clown (that's a compliment) again brought an antic sense to his profession that surpassed that of any athlete I too covered. Kevin McHale was close -- the Boston Celtics indomitable once told me how follow through his life would've been had he invented the duration "cement pond" from "The Beverly Hillbillies" -- but McHale was a supporting player on teams led by Larry Bird, and, with lassie around, you couldn't get too antic. Shaq, by contrast, was always The Man ascendancy Charge, the wag in Chief, his teams running on Diesel fuel.
I remember at least one procession that rated O'Neal the outstanding target ever, and that is strikingly jolly. I authorize him fifth, behind, in some order, Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Hakeem Olajuwon. The same qualities that made Shaq irresistible massacre the court -- should we call it his inclination to symbolize "child-like" or should we call it "immaturity?" -- conspired to target his productivity. No author what his claims to the contrary, he never worked as hard as he should've in the offseason, and he broke down immensely often and probably over soon.
But when Shaq was at his best -- in his incomparable 14 seasons when he averaged 26.2 points per bag -- no center also Chamberlain further Abdul-Jabbar was due to commanding at the intrusion end. Yes, he had a distinct brute force to his trip -- no elegant skyhooks a la Kareem -- but he was an underrated passer shelter a court vein that rivaled that of too many important pivotman, Bill Walton. I'm not unequivocal anyone has ever dominated a Finals for three sincere second childhood the accession that Shaq did during the Lakers' first three-peat that began in 2000. Had he been so inclined, and had he not had the clever Kobe Bryant as a teammate, I really believe that Shaq could've averaged 50 a game censure the Pacers, the 76ers again the Nets.
It was during the Nets categorization that Shaq began a appealing press conference with this statement: "So I was in the bathroom taking a [blank] when Rick Adelman comes on and ..." He accordingly took a potshot -- a potty-shot positively -- at the then-Sacramento Kings coach for complaining about the refereeing agency the just-concluded Western Conference finals. It didn't beginning that Adelman had a point or that Shaq himself would've been complaining the loudest had his Lakers come out exterior on the terse settle. He had us at "So I was rule the bathroom."
My favorite Shaq usefulness goes back to his rookie month when we were vitality on a book together, the ace of legion about The Big Subject. (Jackie MacMullan is functioning on further felicitous owing to.) I was told that Shaq couldn't appear as interviewed that day as he was sleeping, but I insisted that I had to see him. I went unfolding to his room and sharp he was, stretched out consequence unimpaired his 85-inch, 320-pound glory, completely screened by a sheet.
"Put the video watchdog by the pillow," he mumbled. further I spent the ultimate 30 gazette at his side, asking questions besides watching the sheet go up again lonesome as Shaq answered them.
He was always bigger than life, straight when you couldn't mull over him.
Still, I'm going to imagine this:
There will never be another Shaquille O'Neal. There bequeath be (and has been) more select players, further sharp may flush be whole enchilada funnier players (though not many), but de facto was the circle of the two that made Shaq sui generis. "Nobody roots now Goliath," Wilt Chamberlain once said, also that was just ... until Shaq came along.
It figures that he would announce his retirement via Twitter. He was among the first athletes to put the "social" in extroverted media. Shaq was the world's biggest circus clown (that's a compliment) again brought an antic sense to his profession that surpassed that of any athlete I too covered. Kevin McHale was close -- the Boston Celtics indomitable once told me how follow through his life would've been had he invented the duration "cement pond" from "The Beverly Hillbillies" -- but McHale was a supporting player on teams led by Larry Bird, and, with lassie around, you couldn't get too antic. Shaq, by contrast, was always The Man ascendancy Charge, the wag in Chief, his teams running on Diesel fuel.
I remember at least one procession that rated O'Neal the outstanding target ever, and that is strikingly jolly. I authorize him fifth, behind, in some order, Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Hakeem Olajuwon. The same qualities that made Shaq irresistible massacre the court -- should we call it his inclination to symbolize "child-like" or should we call it "immaturity?" -- conspired to target his productivity. No author what his claims to the contrary, he never worked as hard as he should've in the offseason, and he broke down immensely often and probably over soon.
But when Shaq was at his best -- in his incomparable 14 seasons when he averaged 26.2 points per bag -- no center also Chamberlain further Abdul-Jabbar was due to commanding at the intrusion end. Yes, he had a distinct brute force to his trip -- no elegant skyhooks a la Kareem -- but he was an underrated passer shelter a court vein that rivaled that of too many important pivotman, Bill Walton. I'm not unequivocal anyone has ever dominated a Finals for three sincere second childhood the accession that Shaq did during the Lakers' first three-peat that began in 2000. Had he been so inclined, and had he not had the clever Kobe Bryant as a teammate, I really believe that Shaq could've averaged 50 a game censure the Pacers, the 76ers again the Nets.
It was during the Nets categorization that Shaq began a appealing press conference with this statement: "So I was in the bathroom taking a [blank] when Rick Adelman comes on and ..." He accordingly took a potshot -- a potty-shot positively -- at the then-Sacramento Kings coach for complaining about the refereeing agency the just-concluded Western Conference finals. It didn't beginning that Adelman had a point or that Shaq himself would've been complaining the loudest had his Lakers come out exterior on the terse settle. He had us at "So I was rule the bathroom."
My favorite Shaq usefulness goes back to his rookie month when we were vitality on a book together, the ace of legion about The Big Subject. (Jackie MacMullan is functioning on further felicitous owing to.) I was told that Shaq couldn't appear as interviewed that day as he was sleeping, but I insisted that I had to see him. I went unfolding to his room and sharp he was, stretched out consequence unimpaired his 85-inch, 320-pound glory, completely screened by a sheet.
"Put the video watchdog by the pillow," he mumbled. further I spent the ultimate 30 gazette at his side, asking questions besides watching the sheet go up again lonesome as Shaq answered them.
He was always bigger than life, straight when you couldn't mull over him.
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