Shaquille O'Neal: Love Him or Hate Him, You Have No Choice but to Respect Him

With Shaquille O’Neal officially announcing his retirement today, it causes me to stop and think for a second about the big fella.

A moment of retrospect about the “diesel” you could say.

When I was a kid I absolutely adored the sport of basketball, and I was actually pretty good at it. What gave me my advantage was that I was so much bigger than the rest of the kids, being that I had a very early growth spurt, so I learned to use my size to my advantage.

My coaches told me to watch one NBA player in particular in order to try to learn how to play the game as a big man, and I’m pretty sure you can guess who that was by now…

Shaq.

Shaquille O’Neal arguably had his best years as a Laker, actually, it’s probably not that arguable considering the three titles.

That's the Shaq that I watched and tried to mimic as I learned to play basketball.

I loved how if O’Neal got the ball in the post anywhere near the block, there was pretty much nobody on the face of the planet that was able to stop him from bringing it home with the two handed slam.

I loved the goofy faces that he made when running down the court, and I definitely loved the epic swats and blocks that he had on the defensive end.

Shaquille O’Neal was the best big-man I ever saw play the game of basketball.

After he left the Lakers and joined the Miami Heat I admit that I turned on the guy.

Being a Detroit fan and an avid Piston fan, I couldn’t stand to know that such a dominant force like Shaq had come into the Eastern Conference.

Low and behold, he put the Heat on his big shoulders and won a title.

His stints with the Cavaliers and eventually the Celtics were equally as hard for me because I can’t stand those two teams, so naturally whenever Shaq was mentioned or on SportsCenter I would usually scoff him and make some kind of fat or old joke.

The moral of the story here is that there were times where I absolutely loved Shaq and there were times when I hated him more than any other player in the NBA.

That’s the kind of player Shaq was though. He could make you love him with his goofy antics and fun personality, but he also possessed the dominance to rip your head off and slam it home on your face.

You have no choice but to respect him.

When it’s all said and done, Shaq is going to be looked back on as one of the most dominant players to step on the hardwood and he will be acknowledged as one of the best centers to play the game.

But, when we are talking about all-time greatness, the best players ever to play the game, I think that Shaq will be mentioned right at the top of the list right among the best of the best.

There are some people who will hate that and others who will love it, but you have no choice but to respect it.

Follow Andrew on Twitter: @AKonSports

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