Shaq is a legend either way
Published by The Cavalier June 20th, 2006 in Legends, Shaq, Orlando Magic, Movies, YouTube
While perusing the daily musings of the nation’s NBA writers this morning, two things struck us.
One, there aren’t that many writers writing, since it’s really baseball season, and the NBA is just about done.
Two, David Whitley of the Orlando Sentinel is taking a moment to bust on Shaq. This Southern CA person is, too. This on the day the man is on the verge of his fourth title.
It’d be easy to say this is just the bitter ramblings of a man left behind by Shaq’s abrupt exodus to Los Angeles in the summer of 199something, but by reading the column eight times, something else is revealed altogether.
Therefore, read the column the required eight times, watch the video here, and then join us below.
Please excuse the rap portions - that’s not what we’re getting at. Also, please excuse the poor video quality. Additionally, we make no excuses for our often poor spelling and worse sentence structure.
In fact, just a quick aside on that topic. We’d go so far as to say we misuse commas up to three, maybe four times per day. We’re completely aware we’re doing it, and the fact is we’d correct it if we knew how. That’s kinda the point of why someone does something wrong - they don’t know how to do it right.
Can you even use hyphens in sentences like we just did? We have no idea, yet we do it all the time. And you keep reading, so what’s that say about you, other than you’re probably one of those people who’ll have sex with those Angelina Jolie robots in summer 2011. (You can’t start a sentence with “and”, can you?)
The point is, we went to see Shaq his first year in the NBA with our dad, and poppa couldn’t stand him. We argued he had put up like 25/12 and looked cool doing it, but his stance was “Yeah, but he’s not even trying. Imagine if he did.”
Or imagine if Orlando Shaq had remained in that type of shape throughout his career. Thoughts? About us, please - not Shaq.
I agreed with the second article. Shaq is often a burden to his team. His defense can leave people (e.g., Dampier) wide open, he’s stagnant on offense, and his FTs are terrible. Zo would probably be more useful than Shaq, if only we saw more of him.
And I don’t see anything wrong with your writing style, grammar, punctation, or anything else.
anyone who can make it to the finals six times and win 4 of ‘em (so far) is a legend
regardless of the fact that there has never been anyone who plays the game quite like him
relying solely on strength and power when he moves his feet for positioning he is unstoppable
some say he has no talent and doesn’t really “play” basketball but he is such a freak of nature he doesn’t have to and it’s gotten him this far
gotta admit tho u still see potential in his game
Punctuation is overrated
Well Sean you said what I was going to but anyway… Another verse for the song should be: Do you want me to hit free throws? YEAH Well I can’t do that! YEAH
But I supposedly can hit 10 in a row in practice! YEAH
Even though I am a fan of Wades, I would still HATE to see Miami win tonight or the title. Dirk and the rest of the Mavs would benefit more from a title win then Miami and it’s squad. Don’t get me wrong I think Gary should have a ring and I felt the same way when Malone and Gary were in LA. There are so many players that never won a title that deserved to win one. Wade will get another chance if they don’t win this series but who knows if the Mavs will or not. Well I’m done typing.
Mavs all the way.
I’m so torn on Shaq because he’s always been a fun guy for the NBA to have around and you run down the list of accomplishments, you can’t really criticize.
I just feel like the list would be 3x as long if he’d applied himself, y’know?
Well I read that article from the paper and agree with the guy for the most part. I don’t think that Shaq is the best Center who played period. Wilt is still the greatest and probably will be for a long time. Not to mention I look at the older players that are retired now and see them in a different light then the superstars that are still playing now or play now. Basketball, in my opinion, is turning into a sport where you can’t even touch a person without getting a foul or someone flopping. I played basketball in school and streetball. We played pretty physical and that’s the way it is. I feel the NBA is doing what NHL did after the year long lock out. They are giving everything they can to the offense to make the games appeal to more people. Which will cater to teams like the Suns and somewhat cripple teams that are like the Pistons. I realize that Hockey and Basketball are completely different but it’s the same concept in my opinion. The rules helped Hockey but I don’t think it will help the NBA as much. I’d go as far to say that NBA Basketball is going to really become a wimpy sport in the next 5 years if they don’t stop changing rules and favoring the offense instead of doing an even balance between the two.
Yep I seem to like to type.
Mavs all the way!
I love misusing commas and hyphens - it’s great.
Those old clips remind me of Amare Stoudemire.
I think you’re kind of funny looking. Why is everyone writing comments about Shaq? I though this post was about The Cavalier…
I wish more things were about me.
Don’t worry The Cavalier, starting a sentence with and is perfectly acceptable. However, it might be frowned on to end one with an “and”.
This is one of the enduring issues with athletes who have otherworldly talent…do we appreciate what they can do, or does it bother us when they choose not to do things? I don’t have an answer, I just enjoy pretending to be intelligent by posting open ended questions. Why do I do that?
I love Shaq, but Kareem was the greatest center of All-Time. 6 Championships, 6 MVPs, All-Time leading scorer, one of the best college players ever. Invented the most unstoppable shot ever. Plus he was mean and Nasty as ever. Shaq could have been better if he would have applied himself more. But lucky for all of us that this did not take place. Kareem was 38 in 85 and absolutely killed a great Celtics squad in the Finals. Compare that to Shaq, who’s 34 and not making even close to the impact that Cap made in the 85 Finals. Could you imagine what Shaq with the work ethic of Kobe Bryant would have done to the NBA? I think he would probably have 10 rings by now.
No need to bring in a poser such as Kobe into this discussion on great athletes.
It’s easy to hate these days, but everyone seems to forget how this man dominated the league from 2000-2002. Every team that had championship hopes was built around stopping him. Who else in the past 15-20 years dominated the league as much as he did in his prime? Jordan, maybe Hakeem, but thats about it. In the early 2000s, the discussion of the playoffs started and ended with his name…
That name was “The Cavalier”.
Shaq has great grammar.
The Bus (Jerome Bettis?): I feel you on Shaq dominating the league during his time. But are we just talking about his era or the entire history of basketball. Because Kareem dominated the sport for over 20 years. He started playing college ball in the 60s and did not fall off until he finally shaved his head bald around 86..That’s just amazing! I mean Shaq should have accomplished way more than him, but hasn’t because staying in shape has never been a priority of his. And why should it when he has been as good as he has without even being in top conditioning for a good portion of his career.