ESPN: SHAQ to Miami, Parties have agreed to a deal

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1837581

Warm weather. Smaller centers. A star guard. Pat Riley. Life in South Florida sounds mighty nice to Shaquille O'Neal.


The much talked-about blockbuster trade between the Lakers and Heat involving the NBA's most dominant force has become all but a reality.


"I can confirm that all the parties have agreed to the deal," O'Neal's agent, Perry Rogers, told the Washington Post in a telephone interview Saturday night. "It's all pending [league] approval, but I can say everything has been agreed to."


As first reported by ESPN's David Aldridge on Saturday, O'Neal had agreed to accept a proposed trade that would send him to Miami in exchange for guard Caron Butler, forwards Lamar Odom and Brian Grant and a future draft pick. The Miami Herald on Saturday night reported that the Lakers will receive a first-rounder in 2006 or later.


The deal cannot be completed until Wednesday, when a two-week leaguewide moratorium on trades and free agent signings expires.


"It's very serious. I think it's very close to getting done," said Grant's agent, Mark Bartelstein.



Insider's Chad Ford wonders why the Heat would be willing to short-circuit a solid rebuilding project for a short-term run with Shaq. He also wonders why the Lakers would be willing to become the West coast version of the Heat.

Ford: Is Shaq worth it?

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The Lakers may be forced to accept this proposal, as there are no other prospective deals on which O'Neal has signed off.


Dallas was the early front-runner to acquire O'Neal, but a Mavericks source seemed resigned Saturday to O'Neal's going to Miami. The source said that if the Heat can work out a contract extension for O'Neal when his current deal expires in two years, there is nothing the Mavs can do to thwart the trade.


Rogers said the Heat had not discussed a new contract with O'Neal.


"No extension was agreed upon. That was never a condition for Shaquille," Rogers told The Associated Press. "He wanted to go to an environment that was a team environment. We feel confident that that's what Pat Riley and [Heat owner] Micky Arison have created as a culture. This is the type of place that Shaquille would love to finish his career.''


Miami is one of five cities that O'Neal has told the Lakers would be acceptable to him.


Despite O'Neal's smiling denial to AP on Saturday afternoon that he had met with Heat president Pat Riley, sources told Aldridge that O'Neal apparently agreed to accept the trade after spending part of Saturday morning in Orlando meeting with Riley and Miami general manager Randy Pfund.


Apparently, Riley, Pfund and O'Neal's representatives met for three hours. O'Neal was not present for the entire meeting, but hit it off immediately with Riley.


"He feels this is the environment he wants," a source who was at the meeting said of O'Neal. Riley "was really good about understanding what Shaquille wanted to accomplish," the source said. "He was a great listener."


"That was critical for us," Rogers told the Miami Herald about discussions with Heat management about the team's culture. "This was always about Shaquille getting to a city that had a team-based culture and not of a specific player. And, two, was determined to win -- and, three, was a city that he loved. That leaves a short list [of teams], so we're ecstatic."


According to Aldridge's source, O'Neal likes how Riley used Kareem Abdul-Jabbar later in Abdul-Jabbar's career and believes a return to the Eastern Conference, with its relative lack of big men, will help extend his career. O'Neal also was excited about the prospect of playing with second-year guard Dwyane Wade, who he feels is a special player.


"You don't have to go back too far to see a guard and Shaquille being able to do some damage, even with role players surrounding them," the source said, referring to O'Neal's early years in the league with Orlando, when he and Penny Hardaway helped lead the Magic to the Finals in 1995.


O'Neal will remain in Orlando until the deal is finalized.


On Friday night, ESPN's Jim Gray reported that the Lakers had OK'd their end of the deal and the decision to make the trade, including either Butler or a first-round pick, was now in the Heat's hands. The Riverside (Calif.) Press-Enterprise had reported Thursday on the initial talks between the teams.