Shaq Takes The High Road…Or Does He?

While he was only here for one year, Shaquille O’Neal certainly made his presence felt. He was the affable, lovable giant of a man who cracked up the media and the fans. While he didn’t deliver on his promise to “win a ring for the king,” he left town on good terms, unlike his former teammate who now presides in Miami.

Shaq returned this week with his new team, the Boston Celtics, and received an overwhelmingly positive reception for the Q faithful. Speaking to the media after the game, The Big Shamrock appreciated the love.

“I think the people know when I came I was ready,” O’Neal said. “I think they respected my hard work.”

At 38, Shaq is no spring chicken. He is clearly ring chasing at this stage of his career and well he should. In the right system, he can still provide a low post scoring threat, though he likes to miss at least a couple of bunnies per game. Just his reputation and size alone commands instant respect from opposing teams. Not to mention, while he isn’t the most agile of Centers anymore, he is a defensive presence just due to his massive frame in the paint. Sure, teams try to pick and role him to death, but his defense was never really an issue in Cleveland last season.

Reflecting on the lost postseason of 2010, Shaq seems to have no regrets.

“I think it was just one of those situations where we couldn’t get it done,” he said. “I’ve been on many teams like that, you win 50-60 games, locker room’s good, crowd’s good, but we just couldn’t close it together at the end. Everything was great in the regular season. No problems, LeBron was great. We just ran up against a veteran team that wanted it more.”

Maybe the big fella feels this way because he joined the team he couldn’t beat in that Eastern Conference semifinal series. Maybe Shaq will pen a tell-all book after he retires and the truth will come out, but in his return to C-Town, he chose to take the high road. I for one expected that O’Neal would be the one to air the dirty laundry from that infamous Game Five where he-who-I -won’t name all but quit on his team and his city.

The only mini-drama Shaq oft-handedly discussed was the alleged rift between he-who-shall-not-be-named and fellow Celtic Delonte West. This one is from our old friend Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com:

When explaining that he endorsed the Celtics’ signing West, O’Neal said he told Celtics Vice President Danny Ainge that he could control West because he was the only Cav West respected last season.

“I know he won’t get out of line,” O’Neal said of West. “There’s five or six guys that he truly respects here. Last year I don’t think he respected anybody but me on that team. So I was able to talk to him.”

Evidently, Delonte had no respect for his superstar teammate who wore #23. I think we all know how the rest of it played out (allegedly).

But we’ve moved on here (or at least we are trying). A big step was the home opening win. Wednesday night against Shaq’s Celtics. The buzz inside of The Q from two nights ago is still being felt today. Everyone who was in the building that night left with a feeling of redemption and Cleveland pride. Lets hope that this under-appreciated group can keep this momentum going over the night two nights in Toronto and back home against Sacramento.

AP photo/Cooper