Shaq failed.
It’s that simple.
Long before he announced his retirement this week—and even before he’d even won a single NBA championship— Shaquille O’Neal once stated that his goal was to win five championship rings…one for each finger. He ended up with four. There’s nothing wrong with failing—as long as you aim high.
And while he called himself “Superman” and “Diesel” it was his self-made nickname “M.D.E.” (Most Dominant Ever) that he failed to live up to. Such titles are subjective, but most poles list him after Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and Bill Russell as the greatest centers of all time. Since Chamberlain and Jabbar played for the L.A. Lakers, Shaq’a not even the greatest Laker to play the game. Again, Shaq failed to be the M.D.E. because his expectations were a little too high.
But man what a career. Three Finals MVP Awards, NBA Rookie of the Year, NBA MVP in 2000, 15 time All-Star, 28,255 points (ranked 5th in NBA history), 12,921 rebounds (12th), and 2,690 blocked shots (7th).
But perhaps Shaq’s biggest contribution was putting Orlando on the map. I know, you’re thinking, “Didn’t Walt Disney do that?” Not really. Walt Disney put Walt Disney World on the map. I grew up in pre-Disney Orlando and there is no doubt that a world of change happened to Central Florida after the opening of Walt Disney World in 1971. But the city of Orlando was still off most people’s radar.
Even today it’s not uncommon for people to fly into the Orlando International Airport and head directly to Walt Disney World, not even seeing downtown Orlando or any other part of Orlando other than what they see from a freeway. For a while Rosie O’Grady’s Good Time Emporium, which opened in 1974, tried to lure tourist to downtown’s Church Street.
Bob Snow’s creation was a good time place before succumbing to Disney’s Pleasure Island, but it wasn’t a game changer. Sure more people talked about Orlando, but what they really meant was Walt Disney World situated in a somewhat remote cow town called Kissimmee. (Before Disney, the only thing most Orlandoans knew about Kissimmee was they had a big rodeo there once a year.)
But Orlando itself wasn’t really on the map yet. Tampa Bay had the Buccaneers, Miami had the Dolphins, and Orlando had…well, a really cool old fountain sitting in Lake Eola. Writer Pat Conroy, who lived in Orlando in the ’50s, wrote that Orlando then was, “a backwater city dimpled with lakes.” Before Shaq’s smiling face came to town, the face of Orlando was either Delta Burke (Miss Florida 1974 & the TV show Designing Women) or ranting TV used car salesman Art Grindle who would stand on the hood of cars and yell,”I want to sell you a car!”
Sure, Orlando in the ’80s was more than that but it still didn’t command the respect of places like Chicago, San Francisco, or Boston or any other large city. True story: when I moved back to Orlando from Los Angeles in 1987, one of my California friends asked me, “What do people do there? Do they rent videos?” Another asked if there were alligators running around in the streets. Seriously.
The Orlando Magic were formed in 1989 and I was fortunate to go to the very first game of their inaugural season. Exciting days even though our record stank. Then just a few years later the Magic’s poor recorded resulted in getting to picked Shaquille O’Neal #1 in the 1992 draft. In 1995 the Magic were not only in the playoffs in one of the quickest franchises in professional sports history to go from zero to the playoffs, but they played for the title.
They lost, but Orlando was definitely on the map thanks to Shaq. Finally, Orlando was mentioned along with the big boys. And it had the Sports Illustrated cover to prove it. Even through Shaq skipped town for L.A., Orlando is still indebted to him—even if the town has a short memory.
But if you’ll allow me to put on my scriptwriter hat for a second I think I have a happy ending and a way for Shaq not to walk away from the game a failure—and to restore good will with Orlando at the same time. Shaq once said that he could see ending his career playing in Orlando. So he sits out a year, heals his body, and in Jordan-like fashion returns to the NBA. Of course, playing back-up to Dwight Howard on the Orlando Magic. The Magic go on to finally win their first title and Shaq has a ring for his fifth finger.
Then he can move on to his recording and filmmaking career and revive that whole Hollywood East thing that died in the ’90s about the time he fled Orlando the first time.
[…] Shaq failed. It’s that simple. Long before he announced his retirement this week—and even before he’d even won a single NBA championship— Shaquille O’Neal once stated that his goal was to win five championship rings…one for each finger. He ended up with four. There’s nothing wrong with failing—as long as you aim high. And while […] Original Source… […]