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From one Cubs fan to another...
That's an at ude of a winner, and I mean that in all seriousness.
Now if I could just get my Cubbies to follow it....
Remember the Cubs fans' mantra: Wait 'till next year.
Shaq has his rings. He has the HOF. Now he's letting that massive ego take over. ting on his team, teammates, and fans of the NBA. Just retired already.
From one Cubs fan to another...
That's an at ude of a winner, and I mean that in all seriousness.
Now if I could just get my Cubbies to follow it....
Remember the Cubs fans' mantra: Wait 'till next year.
Why r we talking about this ! First he wants Kobe to eat his ass now he wants to talk crap about the spurs. Hey Shaq we fouled you to slow down your team mates not you ya in has been!
Would any of you Spurs fans take Shaq on the Spurs to stand next to Timmy?
Honestly.......
at this point in his career? no.
3 years ago, definately.
Has anyone in sports media agreed with Shaq yet? They're still talking about it and he's still being made the fool for saying it. This one's from New Orleans.
DeShazier: Big Emperor has no clothes at the line
Posted by John DeShazier
Absent clothes, the emperor looks like a guy that can't make foul shots, but takes issue with opponents who have the audacity to challenge him to make foul shots. Especially under conditions other than the conditions the he considers fair.
That's how Shaquille O'Neal comes to call the tactics of Spurs coach Gregg Popovich cowardly. And it's consistent with the stance Shaq has adopted throughout his career when opponents have gone to the Hack-a-Shaq defense and dared O'Neal, a career 52.4 percent foul shooter in the regular season and a 50 percent bricker in the playoffs, to make free throws rather than stand in the lane and dunk.
By the way, the former LSU All-American, four-time NBA champion, three-time Finals MVP and first-ballot Hall of Fame center shoots 58 percent from the field in his regular-season career, 56.4 percent in the playoffs.
So the numbers demonstrate why he'd prefer that opponents play him man-to-man. Then, he could batter their post players to a pulp instead of having opponents grab hold of him before his team can get into its offense, get him the ball in the post and watch him batter an undersized foe to a pulp.
"The only thing I call cowardly is when you're up by 10 and do it," O'Neal told Phoenix radio station KTAR. "That's a coward move and (Popovich) knows that and I'll make them pay for it."
That's ridiculous.
First, a team winning by 10 might go there as a way to keep the Suns, one of the league's highest-scoring and best 3-point shooting teams, from making a comeback via a barrage of 3-pointers. If I'm the Spurs or any other opponent, I'd rather watch Shaq stand at the line and miss one of two uncontested foul shots than watch Steve Nash, Raja Bell or Leandro Barbosa drain a contested 3. I'd prefer the option of a two-for-one points swap in my favor to the possibility of a three-for-two exchange for Phoenix.
Second, it's a way to get into to the head of O'Neal and his team. If Shaq is a liability he's less likely to be on the court clogging the lane on defense, blocking the occasional shot, grabbing a rebound here and there. And once he starts missing them, he usually keeps missing them.
Third, it works. In five playoff games against San Antonio last season, O'Neal made 32 of 64 free throw attempts; the Spurs won the series 4-1. The number of times Shaq has made a team "pay for it" hasn't gotten to the point where we need fingers and toes to tally the count.
Shaq said the strategy makes the game less appealing to fans, that he didn't have a problem with it but that he had a problem with the timing.
Of course, he makes no mention of the fact that if he made a few more foul shots (say, seven out of 10 instead of five out of 10), opponents wouldn't bother him nearly as much. If he shot them as well in the clutch as he always has claimed - and he always has claimed that he makes them when he needs to - the ploy would be useless. Opponents would be more inclined to play it straight on defense and take their chances.
But Shaq gives opponents an advantage late in close games, and they'd be foolish to not exploit an advantage. Same as he presses the advantages he holds.
"(The strategy) doesn't work," Shaq told the radio station. "You know San Antonio tried it but they went home a couple of weeks after we went home."
The operative words there are "a couple of weeks after we went home." Because that means that, ahem, the strategy was effective against Phoenix in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs and it might have worked against the Lakers in the conference finals if Los Angeles, too, had a key player with such an Achilles.
The Spurs tried it against Hornets center Tyson Chandler in the conference semifinals. It wasn't nearly as effective against Chandler, so San Antonio packed up the ploy.
Sure, it's not a pretty strategy. To some, it stinks of gamesmanship. But the players who are targeted and don't like it know there's an uncomplicated solution. They know it'll end if they make foul shots more than 50 to 60 percent of the time.
Otherwise, players like Shaq are naked emperors, more irritated by a smart opponent than by their own failing.
He's finding out the hard way the truth of what Patton said: "Americans love a winner." You win a championship you can go around calling a team the Queens and people will laugh right along with you. You make a first round exit and call the team that beat you cowards, you look like a punk.
Shaq: Last 5 years in the playoffs:
633 free throw attempts
268 free throws made
67 games
42.3%
5.4 free throws missed per game
only 4 made per game
Hideous!
I hope Shaq does try to make us pay and maybe show some A game for a change. Shaq and his ego are old now. An ego that typically would peak with the Lakers. Now this is the part where everyone groans "go figure".
Or we can look at it this way: he went home a couple of weeks before we did"(The strategy) doesn't work," Shaq told the radio station. "You know San Antonio tried it but they went home a couple of weeks after we went home."
No.
ing.
Way.
I don't care what point of his career you suggest. I've despised The Big AteYoTaco for over a decade and the day he sported a Spurs uniform would be the day I'd no longer be a Spurs fan.
a few days ago, this made headline news in yahoo, espn, and all other sports websites. Clearly shaq doesn't have enough love from phoenix fans so he tries to sell himself by dissing other teams, their coaches, and the like.
Although I must say, the whole feud he had between kobe was warranted!
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