In the same breath, Shaquille O’Neal’s announcement that he is retiring makes perfect sense — and it makes none.
According to NBA sources, while Shaq was telling everyone publicly that he was giving the Celtics [team stats] two years, he was saying at times to others that this was to be his last season in basketball.
Yesterday via Twitter, Shaq said “im retiring,” and included a link to a short video of him saying, “We did it; 19 years, baby. Thank you very much. That’s why I’m telling you first: I’m about to retire. Love you. Talk to you soon.”
But the fact he bought in so heavily to the Celtics situation, in terms of both franchise history and the desire to win with the current veterans, makes it seem odd that he will leave before playing one last song with Paul Pierce [stats], Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett.
The Big Sentimental Journey cried real tears as the Celtics were in the process of being eliminated from the playoffs. When he tells you he was upset and that he believed his absence let a lot of people down, he’s not just speaking for show.
O’Neal wanted another championship, and he wanted it here. Badly.
While others have dived into the local scene, Shaquille O’Neal did a cannonball off the 10-meter platform. He enjoyed the hell out of Boston, and he wanted to give the area an even better reason than his personality to hug him back.
Accordingly, Shaq went through all manner of rehab treatments to make it back from, first, a bruised knee (kicked by Amare Stoudemire), then a strained Achilles tendon and, last but certainly not least, a torn calf muscle.
In his attempt to come back from the knee issue, he pounded down the anti-inflammatory medication to the point at which he began defecating blood and had to back off. In the last weeks of the Celtics run, O’Neal was receiving treatment at all hours.
That makes it a bit difficult to fathom why he would bid adieu on June 1, when training camp isn’t scheduled to start for four months and, in reality, is probably several months away because of the expected lockout.
Word is that while surgery would help his Achilles, it isn’t necessarily required. Rest is the best medicine for now, and Shaq could have all he wants. If there is a shortened season, he and his more veteran friends would be in a very good position to make one last run together on a team that figures to make a few changes.
But no one knows how any of that — his health, the collective bargaining negotiations, the Celtics’ trade and free agent chances — will work out. Shaq himself can’t be certain.
So while he may well be at peace with his decision to retire and even looking forward to stoking his myriad business interests, this may not be the last announcement regarding his basketball career.
Doc Rivers and Danny Ainge were certainly not caught off-guard by this latest news. The two had even said after the loss to the Heat they expected it. But neither will be unhappy in the least if Shaq has a change of his big heart before next season, whenever it may be. O’Neal brought a joy to the dressing room whose spirit had been waning. And in simple basketball terms, he made those around him better — Garnett and Rajon Rondo [stats], in particular.
If Shaq is able to get up and down the floor, he will remain an inside force on offense that the Celtics will embrace for however many or few minutes he can offer.
It can be hard to understand how a 39-year-old guy finishing his 19th season can be so important to a team with three other guaranteed Hall of Famers and a fourth on that road. But there isn’t anyone around the Celtics who doesn’t believe the team wouldn’t still be playing if Shaquille O’Neal could go 25 minutes a night.
That is, of course, asking a great deal from a man with his mileage, and the Celtics [team stats] were aware last summer when they signed him that he wouldn’t be playing wire to wire.
Shaquille clearly doesn’t have another NBA feature length film in him, but to leave the stage now before waiting to see how he feels in the fall is like saying goodbye to Hollywood after “Kazaam.” Better he should take his temperature a few months from now.
He owes us nothing. He owes that to himself.
