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I hate Shaquille O’Neal.  I’m a die-hard Kings fan and I’m predisposed to the ideology, the very essence of despising the all-time Lakers great.   I rue the day he relegated us to Sacramento Queens status and I operate on the very thought of him ruing the day he pinned us with that rap. It’s in my blood.  But what’s even harder than liking Shaq is coming to the notion where we’ll be in a league without the self-proclaimed G.O.A.T for the first time since June 24, 1992.  There are only a handful of teams remaining in this league who would even consider the notion of signing the 38-year old, declining, past his prime center.  And the team that does end up signing Shaq will probably be bidding against themselves to do so.

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Not only has Shaq lost his appeal, he’s lost the leverage he so greatly used to his advantage in Orlando and Los Angeles.  The teams that could use Shaq JUST based on talent and need alone would probably be Atlanta (need someone to switch Horford over to the 4), Boston (if they feel the need, let’s hope not), Dallas (in need of one more center to bang with the Lakers big men), Denver (ditto), Lakers (no chance), Heat (slim-to-none), San Antonio (they’re not stupid), and Minnesota (KAAAAHNNNN!!!).  But what’s even more troubling than the fact that so few teams are even willing to go the Shaquille O’Neal route, is how far Shaq has fallen in the graces of the league.  You’d hate to see Shaq relegated to backup duties, where he comes in just as a crowd-pleaser to sell tickets.  This is a guy that just 4 years ago won a championship with the Miami Heat and was arguably one of the top 10 players in the league at the age of 33. 

The last thing we as NBA fans want to see is Shaq playing in a 2015 pickup-basketball charity event, because he still believes the league still adores him and considers him one of their own.  But that’s where we as a whole have come to (we as in us and Shaq).  He’s too out of shape to handle the rigors of a full 82 game season, yet still believes he “owes the league 2 more years”, so we’re predisposed to seeing Shaq lug his ass up the court in 2012 on his much ballyhooed “farewell tour” that will surely have all NBA fans in tears, wishing this wasn’t the end.  We hoped this wouldn’t have been the end of the Big Cactus, we hoped that one of these superstars would know when to call it quits, when to hang up the sneakers and say to the fans “You’ve seen the best of me, remember it, cherish it, I’m gone.” but no.  We live in a society that revolves around public attention, and with a personality and an ego as big as Shaquille O’Neal, I guess it doesn’t come as a surprise that he’s relegated himself to 19 years in an league that’s now dominated by speed and an up tempo system. 

In Shaq’s heyday centers would plant their asses on the block, command position, demand the ball and go to work.  Now the league is ravaged of that kind of play, dominated by the likes of David Lee, Anderson Varejao, Darko “Divac” Milicic and Andrea Barnani spotting up for threes and taking it hard to the basket from the high post (or in Darko’s case playing possum until he has a favorable matchup, and then throwing up 10-foot hook shots and making fancy passes).  The style of play has evolved too fast for Shaquille O’Neal, but once again stubbornness, cluelessness, and a desire to be seen longer than we’d all like him to be seen, have landed Shaq in a peculiar predicament… job-less in late July with his only possible suitors the Atlanta Hawks and maybe the Boston Celtics.  It might be destiny, for a man who never really reached his full potential as a basketball superstar, to spend the twilight of his career on 45 win Hawk teams where he’d surely look even more overweight in their jerseys than he did with the Phoenix Suns.  If bridges hadn’t been burned and steps hadn’t been taken, we might be seeing a starting lineup somewhere in Florida featuring Wade, Lebron, Bosh and Shaquille O’Neal.  Or maybe he’d be giving it one last go-round with a team of stability like the Spurs, or Lakers, but what happens, happens.  And we could very well be seeing the final game of Shaq’s career in mid-april in a regular season contest against the Minnesota Timberwolves or something.  But it was destiny and I’ve always considered myself of fan of destiny.  So good luck NBA without this star, and good luck Cleveland without most definitely your most high-profile departing star.  Go Kings.