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Shaq's Trade Was Huge, but Not Quite Historic
Deal Gets Asterisk Because Lakers Were Forced to Trade Big Man
By STEVE ASCHBURNER, AOL
http://ar.atwola.com/link/93190550/45905012/aoladp?target=_blank&border=0
Worst this, best that, longest streak, fastest time, highest climb, ugliest mug - we love our superlatives, don't we?
Even more than we love the lists and rankings that, rung by rung, take us there.
Superlatives, absolutes and extremes are the stuff of bar bets, daydreams, shouting matches and fistfights. One man's best is another man's OK, and what might be the greatest to one of you is merely (shrug) good to another.
The topic came up the other day in trying to determine the Most Valuable Player in the NBA for 2004-05.
The MVP award - that is, the Maurice Podoloff trophy - itself is a superlative, but with Shaquille O'Neal as one of the top two candidates under consideration (and the winner on this voter's ballot), there's another layer of best/worst implied.
Here it is: Was the Los Angeles Lakers' trade of O'Neal to the Miami Heat last offseason the worst in NBA history?
A pretty compelling case could be made that, in fact, it was.
The Heat, in 2003-04, made it into the playoffs rather comfortably, thanks to the level of competition in the Eastern Conference. But at 42-40, Miami hardly was a powerhouse, not on the heels of a 61-103 mark the previous two seasons. They had some perimeter pieces, an undersized inside presence and, in Dwyane Wade, a rookie playing out of position at point guard.
The Lakers were giants by comparison, literally and figuratively. Running off 10 consecutive postseason appearances, they had played in their fourth NBA Finals in five years and amassed 50 victories or more for the fifth season in a row.
In Phil Jackson, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, the Lakers boasted arguably the best coach in the business, the most dominant big man since Wilt Chamberlain stomped the Earth and the closest thing to Michael Jordan among active NBA players.
Then it all blew up, in an explosive combination of Bryant's ego and Jerry Buss' wallet. O'Neal was shipped off to south Florida for several of the Heat's perimeter parts and the rest, as they say, is history.
Miami, at the end of an delightfully energized season, will hold home-court advantage through the East playoff bracket. The Lakers' postseason competition will come in Secaucus, N.J., when they passively root next month for a lucky Ping-Pong ball to pop their way in the draft lottery.
Pretty dramatic turnaround on both sides of that trade ledger.
But it can't be the worst one in NBA history because, like several others that seemed lopsided beyond belief, there was an asterisk attached.
Remember, O'Neal wanted out of L.A. Just like Chamberlain wanted out of San Francisco once, then out of Philadelphia a few years later. Just like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wanted out of Milwaukee 30 years ago. Oscar Robertson to the Bucks in 1970 was more a case of Cincinnati doing Robertson a favor, giving him a shot at an NBA title.
Fact is, once a superstar makes it clear that he no longer is willing to stick around, his team immediately is dealing from a position of weakness. Any notion of fair value plummets. It's like trying to unload your used Ford Gargantuan XXLS the day the pump price hits $4.59 per gallon.
So blame the Lakers, if you will, for turning over the franchise's future to Bryant. Question them for an inability, with so much Zen vibe allegedly in place, to patch up differences and smooth over emotional hiccups.
Second-guess them, if you must, for not pursuing a better package of talent from, say, Dallas, though keeping Shaq in the Western Conference would have been Laker lunacy.
Just don't accuse Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak of making the worst trade in NBA history.
Whatever small consolation that is.
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/sports/article.adp?id=20031023224209990004
Deal Gets Asterisk Because Lakers Were Forced to Trade Big Man
By STEVE ASCHBURNER, AOL
http://ar.atwola.com/link/93190550/45905012/aoladp?target=_blank&border=0
Worst this, best that, longest streak, fastest time, highest climb, ugliest mug - we love our superlatives, don't we?
Even more than we love the lists and rankings that, rung by rung, take us there.
Superlatives, absolutes and extremes are the stuff of bar bets, daydreams, shouting matches and fistfights. One man's best is another man's OK, and what might be the greatest to one of you is merely (shrug) good to another.
The topic came up the other day in trying to determine the Most Valuable Player in the NBA for 2004-05.
The MVP award - that is, the Maurice Podoloff trophy - itself is a superlative, but with Shaquille O'Neal as one of the top two candidates under consideration (and the winner on this voter's ballot), there's another layer of best/worst implied.
Here it is: Was the Los Angeles Lakers' trade of O'Neal to the Miami Heat last offseason the worst in NBA history?
A pretty compelling case could be made that, in fact, it was.
The Heat, in 2003-04, made it into the playoffs rather comfortably, thanks to the level of competition in the Eastern Conference. But at 42-40, Miami hardly was a powerhouse, not on the heels of a 61-103 mark the previous two seasons. They had some perimeter pieces, an undersized inside presence and, in Dwyane Wade, a rookie playing out of position at point guard.
The Lakers were giants by comparison, literally and figuratively. Running off 10 consecutive postseason appearances, they had played in their fourth NBA Finals in five years and amassed 50 victories or more for the fifth season in a row.
In Phil Jackson, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, the Lakers boasted arguably the best coach in the business, the most dominant big man since Wilt Chamberlain stomped the Earth and the closest thing to Michael Jordan among active NBA players.
Then it all blew up, in an explosive combination of Bryant's ego and Jerry Buss' wallet. O'Neal was shipped off to south Florida for several of the Heat's perimeter parts and the rest, as they say, is history.
Miami, at the end of an delightfully energized season, will hold home-court advantage through the East playoff bracket. The Lakers' postseason competition will come in Secaucus, N.J., when they passively root next month for a lucky Ping-Pong ball to pop their way in the draft lottery.
Pretty dramatic turnaround on both sides of that trade ledger.
But it can't be the worst one in NBA history because, like several others that seemed lopsided beyond belief, there was an asterisk attached.
Remember, O'Neal wanted out of L.A. Just like Chamberlain wanted out of San Francisco once, then out of Philadelphia a few years later. Just like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wanted out of Milwaukee 30 years ago. Oscar Robertson to the Bucks in 1970 was more a case of Cincinnati doing Robertson a favor, giving him a shot at an NBA title.
Fact is, once a superstar makes it clear that he no longer is willing to stick around, his team immediately is dealing from a position of weakness. Any notion of fair value plummets. It's like trying to unload your used Ford Gargantuan XXLS the day the pump price hits $4.59 per gallon.
So blame the Lakers, if you will, for turning over the franchise's future to Bryant. Question them for an inability, with so much Zen vibe allegedly in place, to patch up differences and smooth over emotional hiccups.
Second-guess them, if you must, for not pursuing a better package of talent from, say, Dallas, though keeping Shaq in the Western Conference would have been Laker lunacy.
Just don't accuse Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak of making the worst trade in NBA history.
Whatever small consolation that is.
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/sports/article.adp?id=20031023224209990004
