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LOS ANGELES – The greatness of Shaquille O’Neal(notes) demands that his name, his legacy, never drifts far from an NBA Finals. Even when he’s long out of the league, that’ll still be true. For the immortals, the lifetime benefits include the exhaustive examination of the next generation’s stars to your standards.
How does Tom Brady measure to Joe Montana?
Kobe Bryant(notes) to Michael Jordan?
And, yes, Dwight Howard(notes) to Shaq.
Mostly, here’s how a burgeoning talent is born: A gifted young star emulates his idol and eventually becomes his peer.
So why does Shaq get such glee out of belittling and ridiculing those centers who came before and after him?
“Sometimes I wonder about his maturity,” Kareem Abdul-Jabbar told Yahoo! Sports on Friday. “He doesn’t need to do that. He’s achieved so much.
“I don’t know why he stoops to that.”
Abdul-Jabbar doesn’t need Shaq’s approval, but Howard is 23 years old and Shaq owes it to the league, to common decency, to be civil with this kid. His treatment of Howard has been kind of sad, especially considering that Howard grew up wanting to be him.
Howard marveled at Shaq’s strength and roared at his comedy and tried to emulate him in every way. They were drafted into the NBA as the No. 1 overall pick to the Orlando Magic and turned losers into NBA finalists. Howard always seemed to crave Shaq’s counsel, his respect, but Howard long has been the target of humiliating insults.
In the past year alone, Shaq called Howard an “impostor” and insisted that, “Everything he’s done, I’ve invented,” and on and on. On opening night of the NBA Finals, Shaq posted a goofy photo on Twitter of what a Dwight Howard and Stan Van Gundy child would look like. After five years of this, Howard still doesn’t get the reason that Shaq revels in ripping him.
“I can’t tell you why he’s said a lot of discouraging things,” Howard said Friday at the Staples Center. “I wish he wouldn’t say it because he’s one of the few guys that we all look up to.”
For most, O’Neal’s motives are transparent. Somehow, Shaq thinks it diminishes his own legacy if Howard achieves something significant sooner than he did.
“That’s why Shaq wants [Howard] to get swept in the Finals,” a league source close with Howard and O’Neal said Friday. “He doesn’t want Dwight to win a game because he didn’t win a game in the Finals when he got there at a young age with Orlando.”
It’s funny, but Jordan never takes offense that Bryant and LeBron James(notes) and Dwyane Wade(notes) emulate him. To Michael, it was an honor. He embraces it. He always believed that was his responsibility to pass wisdom and encouragement to the next generation’s icons. Julius Erving did it for him. And Michael does it for them.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_y...?slug=aw-shaqhoward060509&prov=yhoo&type=lgns