Am I the only one who doesn't really care one way or another that Shaquille O'Neill and Pat Riley have now one a championship away from Los Angeles and with a team other than the Lakers???  Anyone who watched that series between the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks saw with their very own eyes that Dwayne Wade was the best player, not Shaq.  He can score, shoot and make free throws, something that the Diesel could not be counted on consistently to do.

I'm happy for Shaq.  I honestly am.  I have no hatred or love loss for him just because he no longer wears purple and gold.  I always liked him and recognize that as long as he can put on hightops and move around on a basketball court, he's the X-factor for the other team to have to deal with.  At 34, he's still the most dominant player in the game even if he no longer posts dominant numbers.  That said he's clearly past his prime and on the downside of his career.  The Heat will never see nor get the Shaq who was the unanimous MVP in 1999-2000 and for three years in a row the NBA Finals MVP, 2000-2002.  How much longer does he got left?  3 years?  3 good years?  Big men don't last as long as guards and forwards.  There's a reason guys like Hakeem, Patrick, Sir Charles and even the fitter-than-fit David Robinson are shadows of themselves the back half of 35.  And Shaq, at 7'2", 350 is bigger than all of them and takes more punishment than all of them. 

I hope one day after his career is over, and probably after Kobe Bryant's is too, Shaq can come back to Staples and Laker fans can welcome him as #34 is put up on the rafters alongside Wilt, Jerry West, Kareem, Magic, and George Mikan and that while he first was with the Magic and last with the Heat, that Shaquille O'Neill, at his best, with the best will always be a Laker, and will always belong to us.  Enjoy your parade South Beach.  Given how notoriously fickle their fans are don't expect well over a million to turn out like they did in the blistering heat down Figueroa or to stand by their team through the increased pressure and adversity that comes with BEING the champs and having to defend your crown.  Say what you want about LA, about the Lakers, about Kobe, about Jerry Buss, about Shaq, with the exception of Michael Jordan, no other team has repeated, let alone three-peated in the NBA in well over a decade like we did.  And if it weren't for a bare miss by Robert Horry in Game 5 against San Antonio of the 2003 playoffs it would have been a 4-peat and if Karl Malone stays healthy for the Finals, there's no way Rasheed and Ben Wallace beat the Lakers in 2004 either. 

Oh what might have been. 

The funny thing, to me anyway, as a devoted sports fan and connoseur (I think I spelled that wrong) is that for all the Laker haters out there, and Yankee haters too for that matter, interest in the Finals or the World Series seems to go south without them.  Ratings for this years finals featuring 2 first-time teams with star players and colorful characters barely beat last years all time low despite a well-played 7 game series between Detroit and San Antonio.  Nobody wants to watch Detroit or San Antonio.  You know as well as I do that ABC/ESPN were craving a Laker-Heat finals (Kobe v. Shaq, Phil v. Riley) and if not that a Laker-Cav finals (Kobe v. LeBron).  Anything other than Lakers-Celtics or LA-NY and the tv ratings suck.  Salary caps and luxury taxes and drafts may have created parity among the franchises but that doesn't make the game more compelling to watch, more interesting to follow, or better competitively.  I say screw social justice when it comes to sports and let the fat cats get fatter and let the likes of Kansas City and Milwaukee pony up and become competitive or watch their franchise relocate somewhere else.  Get rid of the salary cap, get rid of the luxury tax.  Get rid of the draft and let the teams who want to win and want to compete and relish the limelight of the playoffs, and the best players, the opportunity to shine.  The cream will always rise to the top, even if they are 7 feet tall and have egos as big as their 350 pounds.