Shaq's Attack on Stan Van Gundy, Recent Feuds Seem Unnecessary

If you thought that the first wave of comments lobbed by Shaquille O'Neal at his former coach were stiff, wait until you hear the extended remix.

The Arizona Republic has the entirety of Shaq's verbal beat down of Stan Van Gundy, but he's not the only one O'Neal goes after. Patrick Ewing and Dwight Howard caught some shrapnel as well.

The most interesting part of this latest feud that Shaq is pursuing isn't his extended attack, though. It's the fact that he basically starts World War III in response to some fairly innocuous comments that came from Van Gundy during the Suns' game in Orlando.

ESPN has the video of Van Gundy's post-game comments, and when you hear the tone with which he discusses Shaq's flopping against Dwight Howard, you can see how harmless the comments truly are.

Besides, it's not like Van Gundy waited until his post-game remarks to criticize Shaq for this -- he did so during the game, right to Shaq's face. So why does Shaq come back the next day, with comments that end up being 100 times more brutal than the ones he's responding to? That's how he rolls, I guess.

Here are some samplings from Shaq's extended rant, but you should really check out his comments in their entirety, because only then will you realize -- especially given the nature of Van Gundy's initial comments -- how inappropriate the response really is.

On the play where Shaq supposedly "flopped:"

"I just tried to take a charge. The (expletive) rules say you can't stand there and get hit. You've got to fall. The (expletive) got the same old stinking move that Patrick Ewing has been doing his whole career. I went down, got up and didn't complain. I see him and Stan complaining the whole game because they've got to. Remember, I've done more than him, his brother and Patrick Ewing."

On Van Gundy's propensity to "panic" when things get tough:

"When a bum says some (stuff) about it and I respond, you can (expletive) cancel that cuz I know how he is in real life. We'll see when the playoffs start and he (expletive) panics and quits like he did when he was here (in Miami)."

Finally, on why Shaq felt the need to respond:

"I ain't going to let no bum like him rip me and not say anything back. You can cancel that (expletive) all the way. Usually, I let (expletive) go. Not that. Not him. Hell no."

There are obviously some hard feelings on Shaq's side left over from his days playing for Van Gundy while he was a member of the Miami Heat -- and that might even be the real reason that Van Gundy was removed and replaced by Pat Riley in the season which the Heat went on to win the championship.

Relatively speaking, however, that was a long time ago -- Shaq should be over it by now. And responding to some completely harmless comments with a barrage of attacks isn't entertaining, really -- it comes off as pathetic. Kind of like the way he ripped Chris Bosh for no good reason.

Before Shaq's recent resurgence in his play, he had been relatively quiet on the feud front: mending fences with Kobe Bryant, and going out of his way to tell us that the rift between those two was "all marketing."

I'm not sure how he's going to spin this one in the years to come, but it seems clear that there's no love lost between Shaq and his former co-workers from his days in Miami. That includes Dwyane Wade, who Shaq stood over for an extended period after a hard foul on Wednesday, and who O'Neal didn't appear to speak even a single word to during the Suns' game against the Heat.

It seems that with Shaq's strong play, comes his strong personality and the strong words that go along with that. It can be funny and entertaining at times, sure. But when he goes out of his way to blast people like Bosh or Van Gundy who really didn't say anything all that inflammatory in the first place, it comes across as a desperate attempt to keep himself in the spotlight.

And considering the way he's played at an All-Star level again for the Suns this season, all that talk really isn't necessary. We'd be discussing Shaq anyway -- recent feuds notwithstanding.