O’Neal turned up the Heat
By nearly any measure, Shaquille O’Neal’s first season with the Miami Heat was a success.
He took a good team and brought it to the cusp of greatness, helping the Heat to 59 regular-season victories, an easy division title and the No. 1 seed for the Eastern Conference playoffs. Sellout crowds flocked to home games. Merchandise sales increased meteorically. The Heat mattered more than before.
Yet for the third straight year, O’Neal’s season ended without him getting doused in champagne and clutching the championship trophy.
To him, that’s the only measuring stick that matters anymore.
“It was a phenomenal season,” O’Neal said softly, his head bowed, at his locker nearly an hour after the Heat’s 88-82 home loss to Detroit in Game 7 of the East finals on Monday night. “But if you don’t win the whole thing, nobody’s going to remember all the games you won or what you did in the first two rounds.”
He came to South Florida nearly a year ago after his well-documented tumultuous relationship with Kobe Bryant essentially forced the Los Angeles Lakers to trade him away. The Heat, desperately searching for a marquee center, gladly swapped Caron Butler, Lamar Odom and Brian Grant for the game’s premier big man.
O’Neal made a splashy entrance, pulling up to AmericanAirlines Arena in an 18-wheeled truck for his official introduction before thousands of his new fans. He immediately touted Dwyane Wade as the team’s top player, and promised to bring a title one day to Miami – which has never reached the NBA Finals.
The Heat – who were 25-57 two years ago, 42-40 last year with Wade as a rookie and improved by 17 wins again this season after acquiring O’Neal – were one game away from the last series, closer than before but not nearly close enough to make O’Neal happy.
“Shaq’s been great in this league for many years,” Wade said. “He doesn’t have to come out and lead the league in scoring to show his greatness. He led a team with 10 new guys … and with a lot of doubters out there. We couldn’t have done this without him, every step of the way.”
His numbers were lower than his career norms, yet the Heat still raved about his performance.
He averaged 22.9 points and 10.4 rebounds in the regular season, plus led the league with a 60.1 field-goal percentage – a tad coincidental, considering he shot a career-low 46.1 percent from the foul line.
O’Neal ranked sixth in the league in blocks (2.34 per game), double-doubles (43) and rebounds.
“He’s still a great player,” Heat coach Stan Van Gundy said. “We were at our best this year when the scoring was pretty balanced. … That’s why his production’s down. He did get people involved. I thought it was effective when we got people involved. But Shaq’s capable of getting 30 on any given night. I think he’ll be the same force as long as he’s injury free and stays in the condition he was in this year. Those are the variables.”
He was largely injury free in the regular season, when he played 73 games – his most since 74 in 2000-01. But he got hurt April 10, with 1 1/2 weeks left in the season, and the inadvertent knee to the right thigh he took from Indiana’s Jermaine O’Neal might have been the death knell for the Heat’s title hopes.
He wasn’t dominant in Miami’s playoff run, and missed two games along the way – the first postseason DNPs of his career. He refused to use his bruised thigh as an excuse, though, and still managed 27 points and nine rebounds in Game 7 against Detroit.
“I’ll take the blame. I always do,” O’Neal said after Game 7. “I’ll just have to live with that and rebuild and try to get it done next year.”
There’s nearly no chance he will play anywhere else next season, although he may opt out of the contract that calls for him to make $30.6 million in 2005-06. If he does exercise that right, he is expected to sign a longer-term deal with Miami – something he and the Heat have discussed.