Shaq isn’t Shaq without Hollywood

by Tommy Dee on October 27th, 2009 at 7:37 pm

I read AW’s latest piece and let me just say this. Yahoo’s coverage of all things basketball is the best right now and it isn’t even close.

“…Thirteen years ago, the world had walls. Shaquille O’Neal wanted to be a movie star, a rapper, the most famous basketball player in the world. Never so much that he wanted to leave for the Los Angeles Lakers, but he had to leave. Major markets delivered endorsements and televised games and national press. Wilt and Kareem were liberated to Los Angeles and, ultimately, so was Shaq.

“It was a lot different for me then, than it is for LeBron now,” Shaq says.

Everything has changed. The digital age has changed everything. They can watch you every night on a satellite TV, a laptop, a cell phone. LeBron James(notes) doesn’t need Madison Avenue to be a national icon because his stage in Cleveland has been big enough to make him a global star.

Now I understand the “things have changed” argument, but I’m not buying it all that much. Orlando is the Magic Kingdom, home of the Disney empire, so did Shaq really have to leave there to become Kazaam?

No, he left because he didn’t want to share the spotlight with Penny, in part, but he also left because of the money, the fame and the exposure. And he never looked back, that was until he was no longer the center of attention. Had the Knicks been in position, Shaq assuredly would have preferred NY over Miami, but the Heat had Wade and Riley.

Anyway, Lebron can make money anywhere, sure. But the idea that he can be as big a global brand if he stays in Cleveland doesn’t register to me. He needs a ring, but in order to spread himself outside the game, me needs some leverage.

Shaq is not a basketball player. Shaq is, well, Shaq. Like Coke, Pepsi and Nike. A one-word brand that is part athlete, part comedian, part entertainer, part rapper, part actor, part wrestler…and on and on.

His brand was developed in LA under the bright lights of Hollywood, the SECOND greatest and most powerful and influential city in the states.

  • jcmoney

    Tommy, I kind of think you missed the point with that Orlando/Disney analogy.

    I dont think the emphasis is on the fact that LA has Hollywood and movie studios, that may have a little to do with it but the main advantage of LA was the size of the market and therefore the amount of exposure the player gets. If Shaq would have signed with New York we would have still gotten Kazaam and Shaq Fu.

    The difference is the Lakers regardless of who was on the floor are still the Lakers, they still get tons of national TV and have a built in fan base probably 10 times what Orlando had then. Orlando, what 4 years into the league probably wasn’t even on national TV. On LA you get seen, you get talked about, you get magazine articles. I mean, the Knicks suck but we still get tons of press and magazine articles and highlights because ESPN has to because we’re New York.

    This is another reason why I dont think Lebron is budging – He already has his face pretty much on the Garden. How many more billboards and commercials does he get if he plays here?

  • DaGawD_KnowLedge

    if i remembered correctly orlando offered him more money
    but he still went to orlando cuz penny was SHINNIN more than him

  • DaGawD_KnowLedge

    went to LA^

  • Bob

    this CRAP,that says sports players have to have a championship ring before they legitimize themselves as great players is something that media guys invented,(imo).i remember a time when great players who never won championships,people used to say”to bad that guy never won a ring because hes so great he deserves one” guys like TED WILLIAMS and ERNIE BANKS.I dont know when it started,(i think its the fault of the advent of sports talk radio)but now great players are looked down upon for not winning a “TEAM”ring.i’m pretty sure that the first person i ever heard scream this “BULLSHIT” was CHRIS”MADDOG”RUSSO when he used to say that DON MATTINGLY wasnt any good cuz he never won a ring.If LBJ goes his entire career without a ring,that doesnt make him suck,it just makes the team he played for not good enough to win.I mean could MJ have won without a pippen and a rodman and whoever else was on that team,i dont know he he woulda been able to pull off a championship,if he played for a bad org.i really hate it when sports writers say “yeah but he couldnt carry his team on his back”there arent many who can.I NEVER SAW A MAN work as hard on the court as patrick ewing but his team was never good enough ,it had nothing to do with his personal talent.Oscar robertson was awsome,some say the best of all time,but he didnt get a ring til he was older when they had KAREEM.youre telling me he was a beter player when he won than he was when he avged a triple double in one season I DONT THINK SO

  • Bob

    SORRY FOR THE RANT

  • Bob

    SORRY,I went a little off point back there ,but imho i was born in nyin the mid 50s and it didnt matter where players were playing ,if they were great they were great PERIOD …AL KALINE IN DETRIOT or JOHNNY BENCH in CINNCINATTI,CHRIST,when the new york football GIANTS were so lousy in the mid 60s half the kids in my nieghborhood were GREEN BAY PACKERS fans.everyone knew the names and numbers of all the PACKERS and back then ,you couldnt gat any smaller than GREEN BAY,WISC .I SERIOUSLY THINK this thing about global icon was a media creation and still is cuz no matter where a great player plays in any sport,if he is great enough he is a well known sports icon(its times like this when i wish i had BIGGIES talent to put whats in his mind ,down on paper)

  • danny

    Tommy needs Lebron, he needs him bad, that is why he spins every article ever written to how is means Lebron is coming. Take it with a grain of salt because the media is who benefits from Lebron joining the Knicks. If he comes to New York, Tommy all of a sudden becomes relevant and people read his blog. If he stays in Cleveland, nobody reads his blog.

    So when you see comments like “I just don’t buy it” or “him staying in Cleveland doesn’t register with me” it really means: Please, Please come to New York Lebron, I need you. If I keep writing that you are coming, maybe you will.