<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">It was, however, a buoyant O'Neal who left the practice floor Thursday, soaked both in fine money by the organization for his unexcused absence at Wednesday's practice and in sweat after running for about an hour. The back spasms that he said would hardly let him out of bed Wednesday had been quelled by an unspecified chiropractor, and he expected to play tonight. He said with a slight grin that he would have called Jackson on Wednesday, but that his back hurt too much to reach his telephone book and he had never memorized the number at the practice facility. Jackson smiled at the absurdity. "I'll probably get fined," O'Neal said, "and I accept that." The fine, Jackson said, "won't be small. By his standards it's minuscule, but by ours it's not."</div> Los Angeles Times
I saw this coming, no one misses a practice and nothing happens, though that sounds like a bull excuse, "I couldn't reach the phone because my back was hurting too much." Maybe have some one hand it to you? :mrgreen: Shaq's a funny guy.
I really dont get why people find this funny. On a non-basketball level it is amusing, but professionally this is not a joke. If Denis Rodman, JR Rider, Sheed, or Artest did this people would not be laughing. Shaq thinks that he is above the law (ironically he wants to be a cop someday) and for good reason. The league treats him better than other players simply because he is the elite of the elite. The comments he made towards Yao were unacceptable....no fine. Shaq is a funny guy and great player who I enjoy, but he acts like a child.
Well Shaq got fined, and whatever you do in this league that's wrong....there's consequences. Shaq has tons of money, it's not like he's going to worry about this.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Trail_Blazer76:</div><div class="quote_post">I really dont get why people find this funny. On a non-basketball level it is amusing, but professionally this is not a joke. If Denis Rodman, JR Rider, Sheed, or Artest did this people would not be laughing. Shaq thinks that he is above the law (ironically he wants to be a cop someday) and for good reason. The league treats him better than other players simply because he is the elite of the elite. The comments he made towards Yao were unacceptable....no fine. Shaq is a funny guy and great player who I enjoy, but he acts like a child.</div> Yeah but he's a nice guy in my opinion, he just gets carried away. Maybe like some players the fame just went to his head. He should take lessons from Laimbeer or Barkley, he seems to be becoming more like Bill Walton.
The best way I could describe Shaq is that he's basically a 13 year old kid in the body of a behemoth. He's not the most responsible player in the league, the hardest worker, or the most intelligent. But he's not a malicious individual by any means. His comments on Yao were not taken seriously, even by Yao. While I agree that some things Shaq says would have been better left un-said, I think the big man has earned the right to speak his mind.
Shaq gets on my nerves when he does this... if he doesn't show up for practice he shouldn't play... but oh
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Trail_Blazer76:</div><div class="quote_post"> Shaq thinks that he is above the law (ironically he wants to be a cop someday) and for good reason. The league treats him better than other players simply because he is the elite of the elite. </div> I completely disagree with that statement. You bring up some good points, but Shaq doesn't get much special treatment. If anything, the league treats him like crud compared to the other superstars. Shaq may dish out alot, but he also takes alot of crap and alot of hard fouls during games. He could easily get fed up and speak out against the league or else do something worse.....start a brawl. And when you say he gets treated better because he is elite, that is a half-truth. ALL the elite players get some calls. (Duncan, Shaq, Kobe, KG, Iverson, T-mac)
Shaq will never get the respect he deserves because of his size. That's the sad part though, Stanley Roberts was just as big as Shaq, and just as talented for that matter..if not more. But what happened to Stanley? If Shaq was lazy and tried to get by on his size alone, he would be out of the league just like his jumbo-sized teammate from LSU. With so many bone-headed players doing so many bone-headed things these days, I have no problem with Shaq missing a practice. He said he understands the fine and he'll gladly pay it. Why is this a big deal? I'm much more worried about players that choose to spend their time fornicating with young girls, carry ammunition in their cars, smoke blunts like cigarettes, and shoot at their girlfriends. Compared to all of that garbage, Shaq missing practice just doesn't seem like much of an issue to me.
