Shaq's days as a Super star are over. he should hang up his Basket ball shoes and start wearing his patrol boots. I am sure that he would last a long time a a Patrol Officer. Just as soon as he started to writing all those reprts with the deadlines and report call after report call one after another, it gets old fast and robbes your soul of the fun that the civilians have in life. So, the things that Shaq thinks are fun in Patrol would become a downfall and eh would hate the work. He has so much money that he would not last long working around all the Police Officers that struggle to make an average $30,000. a year sucks. Shaq will not last long as a Police Officer either!!

BSRancher...

Shaq is a fraud
Paul Oberjuerge, Staff Writer

The Legend of Shaquille O'Neal dies hard.

In the popular imagination, he remains the Most Dominant Ever. Superman in skivvies. The unstoppable Diesel who takes over big games on a whim and ushers lesser beings into the offseason.

That guy is the Shaq who we see ABC promoting. Who reporters flock to for bizarre witticisms. Who opponents speak of in hushed, reverential tones.

The Shaquille O'Neal who no longer exists.

Odd thing is, most of the nation is at least two years behind the reality curve.

The



great Shaq fairly can be said to have faded away during the 2004 NBA Finals, which Southern California fans watched with keen interest because the Lakers faced the Detroit Pistons in what was supposed to be a Lakers walkover.

The Pistons were going to play Shaq man-to-man, with that man being 6-foot-8 Ben Wallace, who would be giving up five inches and about 75 pounds to the MDE.

NBA cognoscenti, not to mention Lakers fans, assumed Shaq would play Godzilla in the paint to Wallace's Tokyo, and it would be over in five games. Six, max.

And we in SoCal, anyway, remember how that turned out. Shaq was unable to dial up his game against Not So Big Ben, the Lakers snaked Game 2 on a late shot by Kobe Bryant, then were closed out in three increasingly decisive Detroit victories at the Palace.

Apparently, the rest of the NBA world missed that series. Or has collective amnesia about it.

The Lakers traded Shaq to Miami for Lamar Odom and a handful of magic beans, and the Heat last season made a jump in class, which generally was credited to The Big Overrated.

A situation that persists, as the Heat goes into Game 5 tonight of the NBA Finals vs. the Dallas Mavericks.

In point of fact, O'Neal has been shown to be little more than one of the better players in the series. Certainly not its star. And most certainly not the best player on his own team.

That would be Dwyane Wade, who almost single-handedly rescued the Heat from oblivion in Game 3, scoring 42 points, including 12 in the final 6:30 as Miami rallied to a 98-96 victory.

Shaq? He had 16 points in Game 3. Or two more than backup Mavs center Erick Dampier. Whom he at least managed to outscore after Dampier topped him 6-5 in Game 2.

And during the memorable comeback? Shaq contributed two free throws and two rebounds, and sat out the final 1:03, when Wade was polishing off the victory.

For the series, Shaq is averaging 13.8 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. Which makes him statistically hardly more significant to the Heat than Antoine Walker (13.7 points, 5.5 rebounds).

Still, O'Neal is treated as if he were a basketball god.

Mavs coach Avery Johnson is parroting what every NBA coach still says, that Shaq is the man, the greatest, the ultimate warrior, blah, blah, blah. But Johnson seems actually to believe it, running double-teams at O'Neal in the first four games after everyone else in the postseason played him straight up, to no ill

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effect.

That has allowed Wade, clearly the Heat's best player, to go off for 78 points in two games as Miami has evened the series.

There is the Legend of Shaq at work. To the point that Avery Johnson is screwing up the Mavericks' chances of winning the Finals.

All Avery need do is look at Shaq's statistics.

He peaked out in 1999-2000, when he led the Lakers to the first of their three-peat run of titles.

Back then, he was everything he advertised himself to be. He was in shape for perhaps the only time in his career, and really could take over games when the mood struck him. That was the season he put up 61 on the Clippers on his birthday. Because he felt like it.

He averaged 29.7 points and 13.6 rebounds during the regular season, and amped it up in the playoffs. He nuked the opposition in every Game 1 of the postseason, going for 46 vs. Sacramento, 37 vs. Phoenix, 41 vs. Portland, 43 vs. Indiana. He was the NBA version of Shock and Awe.

He hasn't cracked 20 points yet in this series. Which comes after his least impressive season.

While a basketball nation still worships at O'Neal's feet and still carries verbal tribute to his altar, he just finished a regular season in which he had career lows in scoring (20.0), rebounding (9.2), minutes (30.6) and assists (1.9) and second-to-career-lows in free-throw shooting (46.9 percent) and blocked shots (1.8 per game).

Of course he is 34 now, chubby, slow and ground-bound. He can't dominate more than a few minutes at a time. Even though we continue to hear reports about how ``Shaq is mad and is going to take over'' this or that game.

We heard that in 2004, and learned to disregard it. But that sort of drivel still gets printed, even now, particularly after Game 1, in which he got only 11 shots, and was allegedly primed to assert himself. Then ``angry'' Shaq scored all of five points in Game 2.

If Miami wins this series, it is about Dwyane Wade. Then perhaps Pat Riley. With Shaq as The Big Sidekick. Lovable wookie Chewbacca to Wade's Han Solo and Riley's Obi-Wan.

O'Neal is no longer The Force. It's the people around him. He's part of the ensemble now, not the solo artist, and for the sake of getting our sports history right, let's try to separate the legend from the reality.

Paul Oberjuerge's column appears Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Readers may contact him at paul.oberjuerge@sbsun.com.