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Shaq feels Lakers made him scapegoat
Shaquille O'Neal believes the Los Angeles Lakers made him The Big Scapegoat. "It was just guys upstairs who can't step up and do what they're supposed to do. They've got to have a scapegoat, and they know that I'm strong enough to be that scapegoat," said O'Neal, traded by the Lakers to Miami in July.
The Heat's new center was back in town Saturday to host a kids' basketball camp. O'Neal feels that he was unfairly blamed for the Lakers' failure to win the NBA title the past two seasons — including this year's loss to Detroit — after winning three in a row. "My thing is, if I'm going to be the scapegoat, let me be in charge and let me do it my way," said O'Neal, whose friction with teammate Kobe Bryant was well documented. "So if I'm in charge and everybody knows I'm in charge and we're doing it my way and it don't work, then they can, `Say hey, you did it.' "And I'll say, `You know what, I did it.'" Despite their differences while with the Lakers, O'Neal said he was pleased that a sexual assault charge against Bryant was dropped earlier this month. "I'm glad that he got off. You never want to see a player of his caliber go down for something like that," O'Neal said. "Now he can go back to being a family man." After the Lakers announced that Phil Jackson wouldn't be retained as coach, O'Neal asked to be traded. Since Los Angeles dealt Gary Payton to Boston and Karl Malone may decide to play elsewhere, Bryant likely will be the Lakers' only remaining marquee name next season. Talking about the breakup of the team this summer, O'Neal said, "A lot of people are going to try to make it a Kobe and Shaq thing. No male is that important to me, for me to be worried about. "All the stuff that they say is controversy is not controversy to me. I know how to play it well. I know what to say, when to say it, and how to do it. It's called marketing." He still wanted to play elsewhere, obviously not pleased that Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak and owner Jerry Buss didn't offer him a contract extension that suited him. That wasn't the main reason he wanted to go to another team, O'Neal said. "When I was coming up, I was always taught to be righteous. By watching guys like Magic (Johnson) and Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar) and watching the way the game was totally played, it was played righteously," he said. "So when it stopped being righteous, I didn't want to be a part of that." He also didn't like insinuations that he was overweight. "When I was here, they told me to be strong and do the job and that's what I did," O'Neal said. "An educational point: muscle weighs more than fat. "I'm a big guy with a big frame and I lift heavy weights. When you lift heavy weights, you put on muscle and when you step on that scale, the number's going to be high. If I was out of shape and averaged 27 (points) and 10 (rebounds), I'm the greatest player ever created. And I know I'm not the greatest player ever created."
O'Neal, who gleefully joined the kids during their drills at the Nestle Crunch Hot Shots Camp for youngsters aged 12-19 from around the country, has another date in Los Angeles on Christmas: a game against the Lakers. "What I'm coming out here to do on Christmas, I'm coming out here with three big old 18-wheelers and I'm going to Watts and hand out some toys, I'm going to South Central to hand out some toys, and I'm going to see some kids on the Eastside to hand out toys," he said. "That's going to be a good day for me, to wake up and see my kids get whatever toy they want, and then go in the 'hood and see those kids get whatever toy they want." Then there's the matchup against Bryant and his former team. "The game will be the game," O'Neal said. "Somebody's going to do something, somebody's going to win and somebody's going to lose. But it's not that important to me." |
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