SI.com Roundtable: Debating The Diesel: Does Shaq Get A Free Pass For His Antics?

[duncan228]

Roundtable: Debating the Diesel

SI.com NBA writers analyze the latest news and address hot topics from around the league each week.

1. Does Shaq get a free pass for his antics?

Ian Thomsen: When people refer to the NBA as "a business,'' they're dealing with questions like this one. Is Shaq worth the trouble he creates? Of course he is. He wins championships, he dominates with his play and his personality, he creates interest and therefore money. The antics are never anything so bad; it's not like you ever read about his being charged with a crime. Dwight Howard was upset by O'Neal's rebuke, but any kind of rivalry between them will only raise Howard's profile and ultimately he and the NBA will benefit. The guy is 37 and he's still one of the league's top players, so he has earned the right to speak his mind.

Jack McCallum: The short answer, I suppose, is yes. But it's more complicated than that. Over the years he has been criticized a fair amount for his torching of coaches after he leaves, for his reversal of positions, for his need to immediately assume control of every team he's on and for his less-than-diligent approach to conditioning. But it doesn't stick. Part of that is the fault of people like me, who come into town determined to roast Shaq, then find him so charming -- and newsworthy -- that somehow the storyline gets changed. But the other part of that equation is that the public doesn't want the criticism to stick. No matter what it hears, it just likes the guy and is drawn to his outsized comedic talent. He will remain, throughout his career, a 7-foot-1 cartoon character who, most of the time, makes everyone feel better. That, and a Hall of Fame center who won four championships.

Chris Mannix: Of course he does. He's Shaq. He's as lovable as a cartoon character and has more nicknames -- Shaqovich is a personal favorite -- than every boxer in the welterweight division. Does he sometimes take his antics too far? Sure. Shaq took Stan Van Gundy's comments a little too personally, and Chris Bosh clearly didn't take kindly to being called the "RuPaul of big men." But this isn't Terrell Owens we're talking about here. Shaq isn't a divisive force in the locker room. More times than not, O'Neal is just goofing around. Shaq himself said this season that everything he says is done for the purposes of marketing. If we believe that, why should we ever take him seriously?

Steve Aschburner: The Big Provocateur does seem to be sheathed in an XXXXL suit of Teflon, in terms of nasty stuff sticking to him. He has been able to shrug off and move on from some pretty unsavory situations, no small feat for a guy who feuds with words the way the Hatfields and the McCoys used bullets. I guess it's the cleverness of some of his remarks, that half-smile, half-smirk with which he delivers them and the twinkle in his eye when he knows he's entertaining his media audiences. But that's no excuse for meanness, a line he has stomped across recently regarding Van Gundy and Bosh. So let's say that O'Neal gets a deeply discounted pass.

[balli]

I like Shaq a lot, but I thought what his tirade about Stan Van was just about the most immature, un-professional thing I've ever seen an athlete do.

I couldn't believe how little was made of it. These dudes minus the last one seem to being saying that he gets a pass... and they're glad. Which is ridiculous.

I'd have liked to seen Shaq get a league mandated 1 game suspension for taking his beef that far. It was unbelievably cruel.

[Xylus]

I haven't had a problem with Shaq's antics this season, but the Van Gundy thing was a little too much. In Bosh's case, the punishment ("Rupaul of big men") was hilarious and fit the crime, but I thought SVG did very little to provoke that kind of outrage from Shaq. They must have a pretty bad relationship for Shaq to open up like that.

[Spursfan092120]

Damn..I thought this article was going to be about the 3 second violation.

[MarHill]

I like Shaq a lot, but I thought what his tirade about Stan Van was just about the most immature, un-professional thing I've ever seen an athlete do.

I couldn't believe how little was made of it. These dudes minus the last one seem to being saying that he gets a pass... and they're glad. Which is ridiculous.

I'd have liked to seen Shaq get a league mandated 1 game suspension for taking his beef that far. It was unbelievably cruel.

I totally agree!!

I'm a Shaq fan but he carried his tirade with Stan Van Gundy too far.