I am not a big fan of Shaq anymore, after what He did to my Lakers; He was a problem player who refused to accept his "role" on the team; Sure for years he was the most dominant player in the NBA, but he didn't like that Kobe was the emerging most dominant, and did all that he could to make the relationship an uneasy one. This led to him being Too Expensive to keep in town - but the backlash was horrible.
Everybody blamed Kobe - yet Everybody is not a Business Owner, and therefore has No idea how Business works. Shaq was aging, and was overpriced. I accepted the original reasons for trading Shaq, because I too am a business owner - and while plenty of people have businesses, not all people manage their money successfully - which leads to those businesses going OUT of business.
So to me, what Dr. Buss was saying made sense; and while there may be been good reason to move Shaq because of his constant friction with Kobe - They still managed to Win Championships - they seemingly had the ability to leave those personal differences off of the court, during the game, and play to the same goal - It was a turbulant relationship but it was not taking away from Winning.
But, for the money, I could see why Dr. Buss saw fit to get rid of, "The Big Contract."
Not only am I an expert in the business arena, I am an expert in the feild of Basketball. Big Men get Old Fast.
Did you read that? Read it again folks - It'll start showing up in blogs and headlines everywhere; My stuff always does.
Big Men get Old Fast.
David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Rick Smits, ... and now, Shaquille Oneal.
You name a Big man who Dominated the League for any amount of time, and I'll show you a Big man, who near the end, was a shell of his former self. I dont know what it is, but Big Men do not age gracefully in the NBA - their skills deteriorate; Patrick Ewing was so bad that they shipped him out of New York to Seattle, where he could barely get on the court. Even Hakeem had to do a tour of duty in Torronto for a year when he wore out his welcome in Houston - Imagine that! He brought them not one... but TWO Championships!!
I mean, let's face it folks - Big Men get Old Fast - Not like Mike ... gaurds' skills may diminish but overall they can still contribute for quite a while - Sure Mike was no longer his Airness when he got to Washington - but that Jumper was still falling in; Mike would've been an excellent "role Player" for the Lakers ... backing up Kobe; playing 10-15 minutes a game - But Mike's ego wouldn't let him come off the bench and play that kind of role on a team.
Enter Shaq - "The Big Ego"
Let it be known, sometimes the great ones cannot see it for themselves; in their mind they're as quick, sharp, and skilled as they were 10 years ago. However the truth is, physically they just are not there.
So when I read the reviews of the Suns, who are playing pretty bad since making the deal for Shaq, I feel that he is receiving some unfair criticism. As if people are blaming Shaq for the Suns' sudden inability to run, and win.
I watched about 10 minutes of their last game and let me just say this - Shaq is not the problem. Nash is turning the ball over - he's getting old though; Their gaurds are missing wide open shots - and they Still do not play defense... This team has won in the past because of their ability to score points - but missing shots and turning the ball over do not add up to points.
So, to blame Shaq is a huge mistake; Shaq was not going to help this team when the trade was made in the first place.
He was washed up Last year - and it's only going to get worse; Next year I doubt that Shaq will be any better, any more acclimated - the truth is, this was a bad trade; This is what happens when people try to 'force' change.
Steve Kerr came in talking about how the Suns needed to change - reportedly there was some friction between He and Head Coach Mike Da'antoni, and I believe that is what led to this trade; Marion was indeed unhappy - but they should have traded him for some defensive minded players who could also run with this team.
There is something to be said about compromise.
Sure Steve, you can't win in the playoffs if you can't play defense - I wouldn't call you a Moron; but I'll give you a pass because you are a Rookie GM. Just because you played basketball in the NBA, it doesn't mean you're the smartest basketball mind on the planet. You've gotta have respect for other minds in the game; get what you want, by finding out what they want; and thinking it over you'll reach a solution that makes everyone happy.
Works for me in business ... and that's what this 'al for GM' column is all about.
Give Shaq a break (news media) - and place the blame for this one where it belongs;
this photo is courtesy of espn.com
And onto why the al for GM column was created - Because Mitch "the btch" CupCake was just not doing us any favors. The Shaq Trade wasn't extremely bad; when we had Caron Butler; But when he sent Caron away, I was upset. Kwame Brown is possibly one of the worst players in the history of basketball.
However, I did like 'some' of his draft picks; It saddened me however to find out how many players He passed on, after the fact; Brian Cook was an all-conference player; the best in his conference in College - didn't translate to the pros; Then I find we passed on players like Tony Parker and Josh Howard. Imagine those two in a Lakers uniform.
I liked Roni in college, and really liked Farmar as well; I liked the potential in Sasha from the highlights I saw; but none of those moves had worked out. I even liked what I saw in Bynum last year - so when he came to play this year, I was getting excited. I was ready to start calling Mitch by his real name.
Then Bynum went down; but the other players continued playing ball - this latest move, getting Pau Gasol for the worst player ever, has given me the okay, to give Mitch some props. Keep your GM job ... sometimes we do Rush to judgement. Sometimes we do need to give things 'time' to work themselves out.
So, congrats to Mitch Kupchak for a fine job. Keep up the good work... or else I'm coming for your job. :)
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