The deal that sent Shaquille O'Neal to the Cavaliers last week had been rumored since the trade deadline back in February, so it wasn't exactly a huge surprise. But had Shaq gone to another team -- like, say, the Portland Trail Blazers -- that would have been a pretty shocking development, mainly because we hadn't heard even a whisper of that being a possibility.Apparently, though, the Blazers were indeed in talks with the Suns to bring O'Neal to Portland. This semi-bombshell comes from Shaq himself, who also says that the talks came to an end once he informed Steve Kerr he wasn't interested in being sent to the Blazers.
"During the middle of the season, Steve said Portland was interested," O'Neal told SI.com. "He said was I interested in going to Portland? I told him no, so he stopped that."
Shaq often chooses to believe that he's more in control than he actually is, but in reality, all he could do if he didn't want to play in Portland was threaten retirement -- because he, like most NBA players, has no official no-trade clause in his contract.
A Blazers' source in the same article denied his team's interest, saying that the club wasn't in "go-for-it mode," and with two viable options in the middle in Joel Przybilla and Greg Oden, there wasn't a need to make this type of blockbuster deal.
Regardless of how close this came to actually happening, it's an interesting proposition. Brandon Roy has been mentioned as moving into the elite class of shooting guards, so pairing him with O'Neal in the middle might have immediately pushed Portland to the level of title contenders.
More likely, though, is that (depending on what they had to give up to get him) the team would still have been a year or two away from contending, even with a force like O'Neal in the starting lineup. And since plenty of experts think that the Blazers are a year or two away as currently constructed, it's probably best that they didn't roll the dice on Shaq.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Being a Laker fan, I'm glad Shaq did'nt go to the Blazers. The Blazers are a very dangerous team that always challenges the Lakers and with Shaq, they would be scary. Greg Oden is still a project and Pryzbilla is talent limited so we'll always dominate their centers with Gasol and Bynum. Let Shaq go to the east where there will be a dogfight between Orlando, Cleveland and Boston, hopefully the winner will be so tired that my Lakers can repeat.
Brett, you should know by now that Shaq creates his own headlines.
SHAQ is the missing piece for Lebron. The Cavs will add another PF and that will be that. The 45 yr drought is over.
SHAQ gets his fifth and Lebron gets his first.
Welcome to Cleveland SHAQ, "The Big Trophy."
Am A Lakers Fan but i do think it a great challenge for Kobe and the LA-Lakers if SHAQ goes to Cleveland with Lebron also will be great game between Boston & Cleveland on during the playoff to face Lakers Next YEAR
That's idiotic. The Blazers have no reason to stunt Oden's growth even further (the dude is doing a bang-up job of stunting it himself) by bringing in a ballhog like Shaq. Especially because they wouldn't have given him up for free, so some combination of Travis Outlaw/Rudy Fernandez or hell, maybe even LaMarcus Aldridge would likely have been required. Not worth it, big fattie. Not worth it.
I wish he would have went to the Trailblazers. Better to screw them up than what he is going to do to Cleveland's post season chances. And, please don't tell he is going to play better, with more minutes because this is his last big pay day from his current contract. Patch