June 22nd: Buss happy for Shaq and Riley

[Phil]

Some Words of Wisdom Before a Deserved Break
June 22, 2006


It will be 30-some days before I write another column, which is the longest I have gone without making fun of our local teams.

I worry how they will hold up, of course, and wasn't surprised when Grady Little asked for my cell number Wednesday, but frankly, it's time he started managing the Dodgers on his own.

I intend to return before the trading deadline because I can't imagine leaving Angels GM Bill Stoneman alone during such a crucial time, and I'd also like the opportunity to say goodbye to Odalis Perez and at some point maybe get a sign of life out of J.D. Drip.

I've planned it, though, so we're as far away from civilization as possible, which would be Kansas when the World Cup finally runs its course on July 9, a G.P. doing everything he can to keep his granddaughter away from soccer for another four years. I'm even willing to go to Kansas by way of Nebraska.

But then it almost goes without saying I really need a vacation, because I begin today's column with a compliment.

I'd like to congratulate Shaquille O'Neal for winning another title, and while Dwyane Wade did all the heavy lifting, O'Neal made good on his word when he promised to deliver a championship to Miami.

O'Neal was scheduled to fly to Los Angeles on Wednesday night for the premiere of the new Superman movie, and undoubtedly to take the opportunity to rub a little celebration into the face of L.A.

At the same time Lakers owner Jerry Buss was flying to Hawaii — on his way to Japan and China — and while I'd like to think he made those reservations early in the season with the expectation of skipping town before the championship parade, I know he wasn't running from Shaq.

Buss returned a call after arriving in Hawaii, but because the Dodgers were rallying and the crowd got loud, the call went to voice mail before I could answer. I wish I had been at an Angels game. They almost never rally.

"I heard you were asking if I'd like to congratulate Shaq and the Heat," Buss said in his message. "Yes, I'm very excited for them. I've won championships before and I know what a good feeling that is. I couldn't be happier for them."

[Phil]

Shaq has the upper hand now
Kevin Modesti, Columnist



Oh, to have been a fly on Kobe Bryant's wall Tuesday night as the Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks battled to the buzzer in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, assuming a fly could penetrate the Newport Coast sanctuary of a $16 million-a-year shooting guard.

What was Kobe doing while Shaquille O'Neal was winning the NBA title?

Was he shedding tears of joy for the big lug with whom he famously made nice in January - or sticking pins in a Kazaam doll? Was he watching the basketball game - or watching the "Law and Order" rerun? Was he in the fetal position on the couch - or in the rec room working on his jumper?

The night Shaquille O'Neal won his first championship since leaving Los Angeles could not have been a good time to be Kobe Bryant, to name only the Laker most likely pained by this news.

How must it feel to be Kobe, watching Shaq win the ex-teammates' race to be the first to win a title without the other one? How must it feel to be Jerry Buss and Mitch Kupchak, watching the center the owner and general manager judged to be aging and overpriced two summers ago show he had just enough left?

How must it feel to be Phil Jackson, watching old coaching rival Pat Riley get back on top of the profession?

Throw in Gary Payton winning his first title, twoyears after L.A. traded Payton to Boston and he ripped the franchise on the way out of town, and Lakers stomachs had to be churning.

I'm picturing something like the scene after Kobe ate the bad cheeseburger in Sacramento and Lakers trainer Gary Vitti described him as "doubled over like a shrimp."

[Phil]

Even at 34, the World Is Shaq's
June 22, 2006


DALLAS — And now for the Jumping Shaq Flash Era, otherwise known as … this summer.

There's still something magic about the combination of the MDE, or Most Dominant Ever, as Shaquille O'Neal once

crowned himself — and a great perimeter player, be it Penny Hardaway in Orlando, Kobe Bryant with the Lakers or now Dwyane Wade in Miami.

O'Neal went to the NBA Finals with Hardaway in 1995 when both were 22 and were favored to win, but the young team blew a 20-point lead in Game 1, folded like a tent and was swept by the Houston Rockets and Hakeem Olajuwon.

O'Neal then won three titles with Bryant, although they thought little of each other at times, in what many regard as the greatest tandem the game has seen.

Now O'Neal has won one with Wade, whom he calls "Flash," but it's not the same. This time the operative word for O'Neal was "with," not "won."

In his three title runs with the Lakers, O'Neal won all three Finals most-valuable-player awards and averaged 36.5 points.

This time O'Neal averaged 13.7, less than half of Wade's 34.7.

The Heat has been Wade's team, in fact if not in spirit, for the two seasons he and O'Neal have been together. The press is always trying to re-anoint O'Neal as "The Shaq of Old," but that guy is not only gone, he left three years ago when Bryant led the Lakers in postseason scoring for the first time.

"Everyone knows he's 34 years old and he's not the young Shaq-be-nimble-Shaq be-quick no more," Wade said last week. "But we know we wouldn't be at this point [in] the Finals without him."