June 7th: "Shaq-Kobe Breakup Wasn't Necessary"

[Phil]

From the Los Angeles Times
MARK HEISLER ON THE NBA
Shaq-Kobe Breakup Wasn't Necessary
O'Neal is back in the Finals with Miami just two years after his exit from the Lakers amid a bitter feud with Bryant. But the glory days really didn't have to end that way.
Mark Heisler
The NBA

June 7, 2006

Wince if that big dog looks familiar …

Seems like old times, or it would if Shaquille O'Neal wasn't going into the NBA Finals in a red and black No. 32 jersey instead of a purple and gold No. 34.

It may be Dallas vs. Miami but it will look like The Shaq Show, at least off the court — ESPN just did a highlight reel of his news conferences — prompting Lakers fans who are strong enough to watch to wonder:

Did he really have to go?

Here's the part that will rankle Lakers fans forever: The answer is no, not if O'Neal and Kobe Bryant had acted like grown-ups who understood what a unique opportunity they had.

Of course, that's a tough assumption since they hadn't acted like grown-ups before that. Both were capable of being adults, but not when it came to each other.

When soap opera divas feud for years, you can't be surprised when someone stomps off the set. O'Neal had to go or Bryant almost certainly would have.

Bryant was torched for running O'Neal off, but each was ready to be rid of the other and to leave if that was what it took. Bryant was actually the one who wanted to go and O'Neal the one who wanted to stay.

In any case, their glory days together were over. They had been teammates for eight seasons when the Lakers lost in the 2004 Finals with Bryant a free agent and O'Neal a year away, refusing to move off his demand for $27 million a season.

Everyone else was worn out after eight seasons of accommodating their diva behavior. Now, with hundreds of millions in commitments at hand, owner Jerry Buss had no inclination to keep going.

Buss has always insisted he made a purely financial decision not to re-sign O'Neal. Whether Buss ever concedes it, it was also a choice between the 32-year-old O'Neal and the 25-year-old Bryant, which was no choice at all.

And Buss had to choose. The remarkable thing was not that O'Neal and Bryant wanted to go their own way, but that they stayed together that long.

It had taken four seasons and the arrival of Phil Jackson to forge a working relationship, leading to their 2000 title. A year later, however, it took a spring thaw after a season-long renewal of their feud, with Bryant musing about leaving and O'Neal proclaiming himself "the big dog," to repeat.

In a forgotten footnote to Lakers history, O'Neal and Bryant got along in the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons when Shaq's conditioning became the issue. In Game 3 of their 2002 playoff series against San Antonio, Jackson asked O'Neal whether he was going to get a rebound, O'Neal started in Jackson's direction and teammate Brian Shaw jumped between them.

[Phil]

Cuban: Shaq deal wasn't close
BY MIKE PHILLIPS
mphillips [ at ] MiamiHerald.com

DALLAS - Shaq a Mav?

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said rumors two years ago that Shaquille O'Neal was headed to Dallas were just that. Instead, the Heat acquired O'Neal in a multiplayer deal after he requested a trade from the Los Angeles Lakers.

How close was Dallas to landing O'Neal?

''About as close as I was to getting the lead in the Ray Charles movie,'' Cuban said. ``It wasn't close at all. They weren't going to trade him to a Western Conference team.''

Cuban knew O'Neal wanted to play for Dallas, among other teams.

''It was a compliment [that he wanted to play in Dallas],'' Cuban said. ``Shaq is obviously a dominant player and has proved that where he is at now.

'It was something we certainly tried to do. We had a lot of players and draft picks [to offer], and we tried to sell [the Lakers] on the perspective that yeah, maybe you have a down year, but then in a couple of years out, you have cap room. They weren't buying it, and the response was, `There's nothing on your roster that we want.' . . . It was about a two-minute conversation.''

[Phil]

LURE OF THE RING DRIVES PAYTON
Point guard Gary Payton fell short in the NBA Finals with the Sonics and Lakers. But he hopes the third time really will be the charm.
BY ISRAEL GUTIERREZ
igutierrez (@) MiamiHerald.com

Third in a four-part series on

veteran Heat players seeking

their first NBA title.

Gary Payton is quite familiar with empty promises when it comes to basketball.

He wasn't even out of his parents' home when he experienced his first. It came when he was 18 years old, while dominating Oakland high school competition and being recruited by coaching legend Lou Carnesecca of basketball powerhouse St. John's, who was clear across the country assuring great things.

'He was like, `I've got to get you, because you act just like a New York type of basketball player,' '' Payton recalled of his visit with Carnesecca. 'So they promised me they were going to give me a scholarship. Then next thing you know, I guess Carnesecca said, `I never recruited over this way, I've got to take this New York guy.' They called me and said, 'He changed his mind.' ''

It was Payton's first sure thing gone bad, but not even his most painful. That came 17 years later in 2004, when he was part of basketball's version of a sure bet. Payton, Shaquille O'Neal, Karl Malone and Kobe Bryant were supposed to tear through the league and win an NBA title, which would have been the first for Payton and Malone.