<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">It's time to move beyond the man's bruised right thigh and his alternately entertaining or silent off-court moods and his allegiance to superheroes. It's time to move beyond all that and everything else about Shaquille O'Neal except for one very simple yet somehow very complicated thing. Now is when O'Neal needs to be the player the Miami Heat expected him to be when it traded a large chunk of its future for his services. It's time, because that's a berth in the NBA Finals floating out there waiting to be claimed two or three games hence. And the Heat acquired O'Neal for just that reason. O'Neal, willingly and admirably, has subjugated himself this season, becoming a supporting actor to Dwyane Wade's stunning emergence. But what the Heat requires of O'Neal in whatever remains of the Eastern Conference championship series against Detroit is for him to be sensational. And, again, never mind the bruised thigh. Yes, he's diminished. But, at the minimum, he has to be better than Ben Wallace. Otherwise? Miami won't beat the Pistons, which would make the Heat's shiny regular season (59 wins) and its playoff sweeps of New Jersey and Washington nothing but a tease ... and, in harshest evaluation, a failure. Because it's not unreasonable to assume that Miami in last season's basic form ? with Wade, Eddie Jones, Caron Butler, Lamar Odom and Udonis Haslem as its core ? would have gotten itself to this place in the playoffs this spring. But this version of the Heat was built for more than that. A lot more. O'Neal came at the primary cost of 24-year-olds Butler and Odom, and immediacy therefore became the timetable for Heat success</div> Source
I couldn't agree more. Shaq and his 30 million dollar contract has been playing second fiddle to a second year player. This team would be nothing without Wade. I think that if you minus what shaq has done in the playoffs and add odom and butler, the heat would be in a much better place.
