For all of you who are tired as hell of listening and reading about Lebron James and the Knicks in 2010… send Shaq Diesel a thank you card.
Better yet, send him a Tweet.
Because what the “Big Cactus” just did for you is put Lebron into a position to make an immediate decision that will impact his choice to leave Drew Carey town in 2010.
If you commit, then the championship talent, especially me, will follow.
Basically, Shaq is trying to land another contract and having just seen Kobe win another ring, The Diesel knows in his mind that between Bryant and Wade he owns a precedence of breeding champions. Seriously, imagine if you’re Shaq and you’re sitting around and talking to your people about the three greatest players in the NBA. Can you see Shaq busting out a big grin and saying:
“Yeah, I helped them ALL win.”
You’ve seen the bird flying away in the Nike commercial and you’ve read countless posts on this blog and yes there are those who believe Lebron is coming here. Here are the answers we keep hearing as to why he’s not:
- that he loves his hometown (even though he was a Bulls fan growing up) and
- that he wants to win championships and he wants a team good enough to sustain up top.
Landing Shaq may be THE piece to winning a ring- the same way he was for Kobe and D-Wade only a little puffier. And then again, he may not be, but does anyone ELSE have any other ideas? In Shaq’s mind he still is, so he called Lebron out according to ESPN:
“O’Neal reportedly has some demands. He would like a two-year contract extension, and assurance that James will remain with the Cavaliers for at least the next three seasons.”
So if the deal doesn’t go through, make no mistake, Knick fans will have their answer.
Case closed.
What you say? Lebron is smart and if he doesn’t want to partner with Shaq, is it because he’s too old? Okay, then you’ll always have excuses.
Me, I think Lebron has a chance to secure himself in Cleveland like everyone believes will happen. But, if this deal doesn’t happen, all signs point to the King coming to NY, unless the Cavs miraculously add a young stud in this draft.
And if the deal goes down, at least we get to experience the pain this summer,deal with it and move on.
So from TKB, our thanks Shaq for putting on the heat.
Who would give Shaq a 2 year extension anyway? How effective can he be at 40?
I believe LBJ is staying in Cleveland…only if..
1. He wins a championship with the supporting cast he has now
2. Cavs add a peice Lebron THINKS he can win a championship, whether they actually do win in 2010 or not
and, i just dont see Shaq as that piece, they’d be better off with a Rasheed Wallace, Charlie Villanueva type of player
I agree, there are better options (Sheed, Villa though I want him in NY, Jamison, Milsap?, Odom?) UNLESS Shaq did indeed convince Lebron to resign. But exactly what leverage does Shaq have here? Threaten retirement? Why would Shaq wanna stay in Cleveland int he first place? He could latch on to any waning contender (Mavs? Spurs? Nuggets? Celtics?) he wants to in 2010.
This also doesn’t matter at all if Cleveland and Phoenix don’t agree on a deal (Pavlovic and Wallace seems like a pretty terrible package), and if someone else offers more for Shaq than this all goes out the window. I hope this situation does put Lebron on the spot because then we can all just know whats gonna happen
Nice post Tommy but I disagree. Shaq is no position to be making demands. He has one year left on his contract, which expires the same year as most of the other contracts Cleveland has. If Phoenix and Cleveland agree to a trade, Shaq has no say in the matter, much less leverage to be making demands.
well he could gain 50 pounds and play half azzed like he did when he wanted to get out of LA.
Or claim some injury. Worst case he pockets 20 mil, rides off to twitterville and gets a late night talk show.
He’s in his contract year though, if he pulled any of that he would be hurting himself more than the Suns. He would kill his market value and be forced to bum around for an MLE. Would a ring-seeking team take a chance on a 39yr old Shaq that is overweight or injured? Shaq has NO leverage. The worst thing he could do is make Steel 2. Which is still pretty awful.
I don’t think it is fair to interpret this situation as “if LeBron doesn’t commit to the three year shaq deal, than he is obviously leaving.”
If i were LeBron, even if i WANTED to stay in cleveland, Shaq might not be the piece to get me to commit to doing so ahead of time. Shaq might give them a good shot right here and now, but LeBron should be more interested in a promising team that will be able to contend for many years – a team that has young pieces and is improving each year.
It’s very possible, and likely, that LeBron has no interest in committing the next 3 years of his career to winning a ring with Shaq, but that does not mean that he has no intention of staying in cleveland. It just means he wants something else – young promising talent that he is comfortable moving forward with as a contender.
Now, that will be hard to get, which is why we have a decent chance of getting the man, but i don’t think this is the time when we will learn of his intentions.
LeBron refusing to sign an extension after Shaq’s demands, will say nothing more to me than “i don’t have enough faith in shaq, and even if we get a ring next year, where are we going after that?”
Maybe if Amare or Bosh wants to come, and even then he refuses to sign an extension, then that will be indicative of his true intentions, but to refuse to ‘go all in’ with shaq, is just him being careful.
Refusing to gamble his career on a Shaq ring is not implying that he doesn’t want to stay in cleveland, its just him being careful and smart.
If the cavs want LeBron to commit, they have to have an array of young, talented players, and a positive future with enough flexibility to continue to improve. Shaq is none of those, so there is no reason LeBron should ever commit to that, regardless of whether he wants to stay in cleveland or not.
in the end, i doubt cleveland will be able to create the team i just described, so i do believe we have a pretty good chance of getting him, but I’m just cautioning you (all of us) not to take to0 much from this hole shaq incident.
There are three decisive factors in my opinion. I never believed in it (LeBron James wearing a Knicks jersey) but it will happen :
1. If the Cavaliers lose to the Boston Celtics or the Orlando Magic in the Conference Finals.
AND
2. If the Cavaliers don’t aquire a young Robin (Monta Ellis? Josh Smith?).
AND
3. If Donnie Walsh drafts a stud.
PLEASE!whatever you can do to keep that chalk throwin,phony picture takin,jagass in cleveland then lets get on with it…I DONT WANT HIM HERE…its more fun building your team without him,christ sake even this year ..you ask something like “should we sign RAMON SESSIONS”?and you get an answer back “well i dont know if LBJ will like that move or we cant sign 2 guys it might cut into our LBJ money FUCK LEBRON JAMES i wanna build a team that will kick that sorry unsportsmanlike idiot phonys ASS