Ratto: Just noisemaker, not game-changer
Kobe Bryant, after winning his first championship without Shaquille O'Neal, was asked about the good ol' dysfunctional days with The Diesel. He said something that sticks with me now.
"That was probably the first dynamic duo that had two alpha males," Kobe said.
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| Cleveland doesn't give up much to acquire Shaq. (Getty Images) |
This is the way I begin the story of Shaq's arrival in Cleveland early Thursday morning in exchange for a draft pick, a dollar sign, and some zeroes for two reasons. One of them is to prove a point. The other, I have to admit, is that I found the prospect of using the words "Kobe Bryant" to begin the story of Shaq's partnership with LeBron James way too tempting to resist.
Shaq & Kobe. LeBron & Shaq. Little Dez prattling on in yet-to-be-made commercials. LeBron! LeBron! Why you can't win a championship without Shaq?!?!?
Cleveland will take a championship any way it can get one. So will LeBron. And Danny Ferry. And Craig Ehlo, Mark Price, Brad Daugherty, Bernie Kosar, Earnest Byner and Jose Mesa.
And Dan Gilbert.
And Shaq, who -- remember -- is currently tied with Tim Duncan and somebody named Kobe for the most championships (four) among superstars in the post-Michael Jordan era.
For Cleveland, which hasn't won a pro sports championship in 45 years, this was the biggest no-brainer since Ted Stepien was barred by the NBA from making any more stupid trades. The Cavs have the player who will be the best in the NBA for the next decade. They do not know how long they will have him, but they know they will have him next season. They won 66 games last year, and in the proud tradition of Cleveland sports, had nothing to show for it.
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If the opportunity presents itself to acquire the greatest center of his era -- albeit an aging alpha male -- in exchange for empty contracts and the 46th pick in a draft that will go down as having fewer than a dozen legit first-round picks, you do it. You don't ask questions -- except the following question to the owner: "Mr. Gilbert, can we pay a 37-year-old, 15-time All-Star $20 million this season if it gives us a better chance of winning the gold-plated trophy?"
The question was asked, and the answer was yes. As it should have been. The cost of not getting LeBron a championship-caliber running mate and losing him as a free agent in 2010 would've cost the franchise $20 million twice over.
This is a one-time shot, because with rare, modern-day exceptions -- the Spurs, the Kobe-Shaq Lakers -- it is always a one-time shot in the NBA.
This is not to say that it'll work. It might not. But for what the Cavs gave up -- the aforementioned, useless draft pick, Ben Wallace, Sasha Pavlovic, and some couch-cushion money -- you do it. You do it and you don't look back.
My first questions about this were A) Was LeBron consulted and, B) Assuming he was, what did he say? Yes and yes were the answers, as you might imagine. LeBron was consulted, as were some of his teammates. It is sometimes hard to remember in the LeBron-centric world we inhabit that LeBron isn't the only guy on the team, or in the NBA. (He tried to be the only guy on the team against Orlando, and look at how that worked out.) LeBron was all for it, according to someone close to him, and so was everyone else who was asked. How could you not be? What's the downside?
Well, that's not the right question. The right question is, what was the alternative? Doing nothing to upgrade LeBron's supporting cast only one summer away from his date with free agency certainly wasn't one of them. But Cavs GM Ferry, as earnest and hard-working as they come in the business, had other irons in the fire.
He knew that Wallace's $14 million expiring contract was a valuable asset that became even more valuable when Big Ben floated the idea of retiring after the Cavs lost to the Magic in the Eastern Conference finals. Ferry knew that a team like the Suns, looking to make the mistake that was Shaq go away before it cost them another $20 million, would be salivating at the notion of acquiring a player whose expiring contract could expire even faster with a retirement/buyout. As of early Thursday morning, before the trade had even been presented to the league office for approval, there were no guarantees about Wallace walking away -- only "a chance," one person familiar with the situation said. And that was enough.
Pavlovic, who has only $1.5 million of his $4.9 million salary guaranteed for next season, was a custom-made piece for cost-cutting Phoenix. The cash and 46th pick at least gave the Suns something for their trouble; efforts to bring in a third team to sweeten the deal for the Suns never went anywhere.
Other alternatives? The Cavs were said to have been interested in Milwaukee's Charlie Villanueva, and they had legitimate conversations with New Jersey about Vince Carter. (They will continue to have conversations, by the way.) Nice players, but not Shaq. Whomever else the Cavs considered, I'm guessing that none of them helped Kobe win three titles and Dwyane Wade one.
In a surreal slice of 2009, the news of Shaq getting traded was popping on Twitter at the very moment when Dwight Howard -- the next Shaq, if you ask anyone but Shaq -- was appearing on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Shaq apparently learned of the trade on Twitter, according to a fan who messaged him about it and got the following response: "I didn't hear dat yet."
So it would be appropriate to accentuate something pointed out by Russ Bengtson of SLAM Magazine ... also on Twitter, of course: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was MVP of the Finals two months after turning 38. In case you're wondering, the now 62-year-old Kareem weighed in with a Tweet of his own: "If Shaq can play regularly, he is exactly what the Cavs need."
With all due respect, Kareem, that's only half right.
Even though O'Neal averaged 17.8 points (his best in three seasons) and shot .609 from the field (his best since the 2005-06 championship season with Miami), the Cavs obviously don't need him in the regular season. They recently won 66 games without him. The Cavs need him in the playoffs -- or, more specifically, in the Eastern Conference finals against Boston or Orlando. And then they need him in the NBA Finals against the Lakers, Spurs, Nuggets or Rockets. That is when Shaq will earn his $20 million.
If the Cavs win it all, they will be too giddy to field the Little Dez-like questions about LeBron needing Shaq or about Shaq needing Kobe, Wade, or LeBron to win their titles.
If they don't win, they still did the right thing.
