There's two sides to this. Yeah, Shaq takes some hard fouls and hacks on a nightly basis, but don't forget that HE DISHES OUT JUST AS MUCH BRUTALITY OR MORE THAN HE RECEIVES. He consistently bowls over people, defenders get elbows in the face, they got knocked on their butts trying to guard him. What happened last night was ridiculous. Miller wrapped up Shaq's right arm pretty hard. It was Oakley that got Shaq in the head and shoulders area, in the process hitting Miller in the eye. That's why Miller turned and walked away, holding his eye. SHaq picked on the wrong guy. I wouldn't have been as frustrated if he had gone after Oakley.
I'm glad that Charles Oakley, who I usually hate, stood up for himself and the team. Shaq gets away with a ridiculous amount of offensive fouls inside. Just imagine the pain other players go through when they deal with his elbows and shoulders just bowling over them game after game, and the refs do nothing about it. By the way, as many people have tried to say before, last night was Kobe Bryant playing without a dominant big man. Not quite the same, was he? P.S.: Dynasty teams don't get blown out by the Wolves and then beaten by the lowly Bulls on consecutive nights.
Well if Shaq was a FRICKEN professional and would learn to shoot free throws, I would bet the fouling would not happen so often. Not to mention that he CONSTANTLY runs over people on his way to the basket, and NEVER...and I mean NEVER gets called for offensive fouls. Shaq is a monster down low, but he gets away with murder on offense, so he needs to suck it up. You reap what you sow. DaDakota
I was talking about this in the chat, I don't know if this is what you meant, but in his rookie year during a fight with Laimbeer Shaq just knocked the snot out of Alvin Robertson. Just a ridiculous moment, the guy didn't even come up to Shaq's knee and he was a veteran player. And typical Kobe, when he has Shaq in there and the attention is on him Kobe is the man. When Shaq is out and the attention is on Kobe he comes back to reality. And it's typical garbage by Charles Oakley. During the 1997 season the Bulls lost on their home court to the T-Wolves and then lost on the road against a Raptors team that was equally as bad as this year's Bulls. The Rockets also lost to a horrible Mavericks team during their championship runs.
People are saying Shaq was bound to blow a fuse with the hacking, but what about the people guarding him? Not only does he plow into them, he lifts his elbows up and hit people in the face all the time despite that being against the rules. He does it ALL THE TIME! That hurts a hell of a lot more then hacking. And when he dunks he kicks people in the face on purpose, just ask Chris Dudley. Shaq wants to play the game he better expect some payback on the other end.
I hate Shaq and his offensive fouls but Chicago has a policy to hurt players around the basket. I was watching the Mavs-Bulls game about a week ago(in Chicago) and the Bulls hit Nowizki in the head about 4 times. They were violent blows to keep him out of the lane. This is why Cuban was upset at the violence in the NBA. It was the Bulls game that woke up Don Nelson and Cuban. The Bulls coaches have some responsibility here. Cartwright probably tells his players to kill anybody in the lane with the ball.
Miller is lucky. How far was Shaq standing behind Miller? 2-3 ft? How did Shaq not connect? Miller probably didn't know what was going on until he turned around. By then it was pretty much over.
If Shaq wanted to actually connect with those blows, TRUST ME, he could have. Same thing with Barkley a few years ago. A guy that big and with that kind of quickness could really, really hurt someone if he wanted.
Just imagine the pain Shaq goes through night in and night out when Joe Scrub Center decides to foul him as hard as he can every play. If dude wants to intentionally foul Shaq, then he can do what Portland did a few years ago and make it clear they're fouling him, but not try to hurt him. Maybe now that Shaq has shown that he has a breaking point, maybe these scrub centers will stop trying to injure him every foul. You might say Shaq gets away with murder, but he doesn't try to hurt his opponent in game action unless his opponent tries hitting him first, which happened in both cases that were shown on tape. Also, what? Kobe's not allowed to have a bad game? He shot 9 of 25 in that game, now I'm assuming you think McGrady is much better than Kobe. Well lets look at some of McGrady's last few shooting games... He shot 6-20, 6-17, and 9-23 in his last 3 games, yep, he's definitely not a franchise player... Carter was 6-25 and 7-21 in his last 2 games... This all proves that Carter and McGrady just don't have what it takes to be franchise players...just like Kobe... Also losing to the Bulls with Shaq missing in the 4th is a sure sign that this Lakers team is definitely not a dynasty team... The Lakers will win again this year, how many championships does it take to be a dynasty anyway?
The Lakers won't win another championship in the next several years, much less this year. By the way, I'm not saying these other players are better than Kobe, I'm just saying that they are all similar. I know McGrady and Carter have bad shooting nights, and it's because they are the sole focus of the opposing defense. When Shaq is out, Kobe is proving that he's on their level, not above it.
After looking at the replays, I'd have to take Shaq's side in this instance. They weren't just fouling him, they appeared to be putting everything they had into it. Phil Jackson said it best, it was the ref's fault that the game turned out the way it did. It's true that Shaq gets away with a lot of things that would be called as fouls if it were a smaller man doing it, but there is no excuse for intentionally trying to hurt another man. I'd have to say that this is the second black eye for the League & NBA officials. They definitely need to review the performance of the referees. Maybe Cuban is a man ahead of his time. Until then, it's now very obvious how to beat the Lakers. Just put your scrubs in & let them beat the crap out of Shaq, until the refs start calling it.
"He lands one of those, and I feel sorry for the guy he connects with," Bulls rookie Tyson Chandler said. "Going through a whole year, that dude gets fouled a lot, and people intentionally foul him. I'm surprised he keeps his composure as much as he does." Even other teammates of Miller agree..case closed
What, What, What? All of a sudden if you're being hacked intentionally it is okay to go after a player with a massive swin with his back turned. You know, there is a reason there is a technical foul and intentional foul in the rulebook. Because it happens. It doesnt mean you can try and dislocate the other players head. Further, how do you even know that they were intentionally trying to hurt Shaq? While the fould themselves were intentional, I doubt the motive was. Imagine if you're getting bowled over every play and there is never an offense foul called on Shaq. You're damn straight I'd do an intentional foul every once in a while. But that doesnt mean Id intentionally try to hurt him, it only means I'd intentionally foul the other play in not going for the ball in any way. Imagine if the punch landed. Miller would be out for a while and Shaq should be suspended indefinitely. As it is, I expect a more lenient fine than is necessary given the circumstances (Shaq being the league's best player). Bottom line: Shaq is generally a good guy, but there is no room for complaining when over 75% of the contact is initiated on your part.
What Shaq did was incredibally stupid, but I'm not going to pretend that I haven't done anything stupid like that before and call him a low class punk... I'm just happy he didn't connect because then he'd probably be out of the league, and everyone loses then...
Or everybody wins, depending on your point of view. I could do without Shaq's patented move of elbow to the sternum, drop step, shoulder block, dunk on every possession. I am sure a lot of centers would be happy not to have to play against him. Other teams would jump in the standings. Really the only people who lose out are the Fakers.
Sorry vj, but Shaq is the best center in the game. He might seem like a big oaf, but he's a pretty damn good passer, and it is truly amazing when he actually dribbles the ball down the court like a PG leading a fastbreak. If Shaq were kicked out of the league, I'd have a difficult time respecting a team that won a championship after him.
