Shaquille O'Neal has a decision to make—at 38 years old, the oldest active player in the NBA, does he want to eek one more reasonable payday out of his career, or does he want to latch on with a team where he could have a chance to win his fifth championship ring? The latter would require he take less money and a lesser role, but so far everything O'Neal has done seems to indicate he's not particularly interested in doing either. According to Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Shaq has even sniffed out the possibility of playing over in Europe if it meant an opportunity to snare one more $8-10 million contract—something he clearly is not going to get in the NBA this season. Now, realistically, is O'Neal going to head over an ocean just to earn a few extra million dollars when he's already been one of the highest-paid player of the last twenty years? It's hard to buy that anything we hear along those lines is a bluff to help some NBA team get more serious about him. Granted, he'd rock one of those "I'm big in Europe" t-shirts harder than probably anyone in the history of the world if that was what he actually ended up doing, but that doesn't seem likely. So where does he end up, if anywhere at all? Windhorst suggests the possibility of his returning to Cleveland for a year for an amount similar to the midlevel exception, with the hope that a desperate contender would make a play for him around the trade deadline. But considering that the post-LeBron Cavaliers clearly have to go into rebuilding mode, is a year with O'Neal stealing away minutes at center really the smartest thing? Honestly, this story could've gone away weeks ago were Shaq willing to take a $2 million deal and play for someone legitimately fighting for a ring. But if he were willing to do that, it'd be done. Considering the fact that it's not, we can only assume that he's serious about earning $5-10 million in the NBA next season. Cooler heads understand that's probably not going to happen, but could that be the thing that pushes the original Superman to Greece or Italy? Most of us really, really doubt it, but stranger things have happened this summer. Read more NBA news and insight: http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=16970#ixzz0vNnzVaYk
