Shaq retires

i thought he always got away with murder down in the post, but he was a damn entertaining guy and never took himself too seriously!

You'd love him if he was on your team.
 
I still remember back when he was playing HIgh School ball in San Antonio at Cole High School. Every night on the News during the Sports, they'd have this nights edition of "THE SHAQUILLE O'NEIL HIGHLIGHT REAL." He would just abuse these poor little white and mexican guys and the goal would shake and sway when he was done.
 
Great player 8-12 years ago. Been out of shape for a long time now. He could really slam it down back in his day.
 
I happened to move to Orlando right when he was drafted and was there for 4 years... including the NBA finals run on the team that had Penny, Nick Anderson, Horace Grant, Shaq, etc. I grew up in Houston, so it was weird being in enemy territory for the series.

Anyway, I didn't like Shaq for a long time. At times, he tried to do the Ali-esque "I'm the greatest there ever was" thing, and he did a bad job of it, IMO. It irritated me. Plus there was the quote about, "I've won championships at every level except college and pro." Ugh.

I also was a huge Hakeem fan. . . and the unbelievable footwork and athleticism of Hakeem was in sharp contrast to the lower-the-shoulder-and-knock-the-defender-down Shaq approach.

Alas, the big guy sort of grew on me. It wasn't his fault that he was so hard to officiate (and he was really, really hard to officiate). As many times as he could have been whistled for a charge, there were more instances of him getting shoved or slapped in the process of shooting -- things that would have been called every time if they happened to another position player, or even a smaller center.

Plus, I had to admit at some point that his game was really a lot more than brute strength. He had great hands and nice touch around the rim.

He was good for the game.
 
He finally grew on me when I watched a show of his "Shaq vs." on ABC. He is f'n funny- at least now he is. I like him as a sideline personality- but not so much as a player.

On the court- he was a monster, a tank that was playing a game best suited for finesse, style and coordination- of which he was limited in all 3. For his size- yes, he was talented, but like I said- having a poor shooting tank get dunks primarily because his *** was the largest in the arena wasn't so entertaining from a basketball perspective.
 
Unless genetic engineering becomes a more realistic option, there's never going to be another big man like him. They had to change the friggin' rules for him, like they did for Wilt.

He should have won the MVP the following two years that he actually did get the award, but people were so sick of him winning everything all the time.
 
He needed to retire. His last minutes for Boston were painful to watch.

I hope he can manage retirement successfully because his spending habits weren't built to last.

He was awesome. Unbelievably athletic for his size. As noted, difficult to referee. The stripes usually hacked at him just as the opponent did.

Very likable guy. The bragging and stuff was straight clowning. He was never a behavioral problem, no scandals, really, just good, clean, wholesome, innocent fun.

I will miss him.
 
For all the times he just knocked guys out of the way and bulldozed a path, there was one where he made an agile spin move to blow by a guy who looked like he ought to have a huge quickness advantage on Shaq. I always thought O'Neal had pretty good ballhandling skills for a pure low-block player as well.

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as much as I hated Shaq as an opponent, he had great footwork. even though he had the size, and was able to use that to establish initial position, his footwork is what allowed him to move around so well.
 
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