I previously wrote an article in November, saying that Shaq is proving his doubters wrong this year. Recently, he has not only been proving his doubters wrong, but his fans wrong as well.
I’m not sure any of his fans even realized that he still had this much left in his tank. This season, Shaq has arguably been the Suns best player. Charles Barkley even called him the Sun’s MVP earlier this season.
Shaq is so important to the Sun’s this year that they are 2-4 without him and 21-11 with him. He has even been more important to the Sun’s this past month.
During O’Neal’s last 13 games, he is averaging around 36 minutes, 22.3 points, 9.6 rebounds per game
Shaq has found his fountain of youth and is playing as good as he has since his championship run with the Heat.
When last year Shaq spoke so highly of the Suns training staff, while slighting the Heat’s staff, many people especially Pat Riley criticized Shaq for it. Well, I think his critics owe Shaq an apology?
Last March, Shaq in a way predicted that the Sun’s staff would help him roll the clocks back a few years.
Shaq said, “A lot of these teams have got the old trainers, who I consider 'analog trainers,' and they just go with the stim [electric stimulation] and the sound [ultrasound],'' O'Neal said.
"But that don't really work no more. Your body is like a building, and if certain things are off [in the foundation] then the whole thing's going to be off.”
"I had pulled a hip muscle, and when you pull one muscle, the other muscles start to overwork”, he said. “So with me pulling this muscle, all these muscles shut down, and then my ass muscles were starting to work. And that's where all the pain was coming from.''
"They didn't see that,'' O’Neal said. "That's the stuff that you can't see in the MRI. So they would take MRIs and they wouldn't see anything. Because of what was going on, they would make excuses -- 'Oh, he's getting divorced, his career's over, he don't want to play ... he's faking.'
"I had a freaking pain right here,'' he said, grabbing below his right hip. "I'm sort of old school myself, so I'll suck it up a few days. But then if it all hurts, give me a shot. And then usually when the shot don't work, something else is wrong.
"But we were taking MRIs and nothing else was wrong. I went to a so-called expert in California and he didn't know what was wrong.''
Suns athletic trainer Aaron Nelson even conferred with what Shaq was saying claiming that Shaq’s base affects "everything that he does, from being able to run straight ahead, to go side-to-side, to pivoting, stuff that he does normally. Rebounding and coming down, he's got to be able to stabilize.
"That muscle is a very important muscle, and if that's weak, then you've got a lot of other compensations.''
Right now, it would be hard to refute Shaq’s statements last year as his agility, quickness, lift, post moves, and endurance all seem to be much improved from last year. Even scarier for future opponents of Shaq is that he seems to be getting better every game.
In the past three games, Shaq has played in, he has had multiple monster dunks that have caused the suns bench jump out of their seats and even have to hold each other back.
In particular against the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday, Shaq completely posterized a defender and reminded us his heydays with the Lakers.
Shaq has made a case for being the second best center behind Dwight Howard and the best offensive center in the league this month. By looking at his statistics it would be hard to argue with that.
However, the one part of Shaq’s game that might be the most surprising is Shaq’s improved free-throw shooting.
On the season, he is shooting a career high 62.3 percent, and recently he has been even better as he hit 12 straight free throws against the Maverick and Clippers in consecutive nights last week.
Shaq has many free throw experts help him throughout his career, and it seems as though all Shaq needed to do the entire time was go back to his high school form.
Apparently Shaq, with Grant Hill next to him, Googled old videos of himself shooting free throws and decided to switch back to shooting the way his father taught him.
Since Shaq has gone back to using his high-school form to start December, O'Neal has made 91 of 133 free throws (68.4 percent).
"I was trying too hard," said O'Neal, a career 52.6 percent shooter. "Now, I'm just shooting it the way I was taught to shoot it. Whenever you switch up on something, bad luck will happen to you. I'm trying to get my name in the top-five scoring before I'm done so I'm trying to get as many easy buckets as I can."
Since Shaq has been so good at shooting free throws lately, this past week he has given himself a new nickname, Shaq-ovic, to add to his large collection.
"If you go around the league, anybody with the last name 'vic' is a great shooter," O'Neal said. "(Vladimir) Radmanovic, (Sasha) Vujacic next door."
Shaq’s free throw shooting has benefited Shaq more than people might even realize. Shaq is suddenly not as much of liability at the end of games, and the Hack a Shaq isn’t effective anymore.
Shaq is suddenly more confident underneath hoop. In the past, he would try and get his shot off as quickly as possible before defenders could foul him.
However, now defenders are less likely to foul him, and he is not afraid to take his time in the paint.
Earlier this year on Dec. 30, Shaquille O’Neal passed Oscar Robertson to reach eighth place on the all time-scoring list.
If Shaq had gone back to his high school form sooner, he likely would have passed Robertson a long time ago.
"I'm really upset with myself that I've missed like 5,000 free throws," Shaq said after he passed Robertson. "If I would have hit half of those, I'd probably be No. 3 right now. Maybe when it's all said and done, I'll end up in the top five."
Shaq will most likely pass Hakeem Olajuwon at some point this year, and by next year if he stays healthy, he will surely catch Moses Malone and Elvin Hayes, and move into fifth place all-time.
You would think with how great Shaq has been playing that everyone would be happy about it.
However, according to Stephen A. Smith, Shaq’s sudden resurgence may be bad for the Sun’s
"Shaquille O'Neal knows he's not the number one offensive option for this team. He (O'Neal) said that Amar'e Stoudemire should be the number one option," said Smith.
"The problem is, is that Amar'e Stoudemire, and Steve Nash, and the rest of those guys aren't exactly happy with the way things are going," Smith said.
"They're not upset, because they're winning basketball games, but you can't continue to throw the ball and lob it inside, and expect these guys to be excited about getting on the court."
I’m not sure Stephen A. Smith has been watching the same Suns team this year, because otherwise it would be clear that the Suns should play through Shaq.
The Sun’s have already proven in past years that they can’t win a title with the offense running through Amare Stoudemire and Steve Nash and this year when Shaq hasn’t played the team has suffered.
Shaq has won four titles with the offense running through him and even at this stage in his career, when he gets the ball, good things happen for him and his teammates.
If Smith is right and Amare and Nash are in reality upset with the offense, then these two need to grow up and act more like teamates, because these two should be just happy winning.
Steve Kerr brought Shaq to Phoenix because he realized that trying to outrun your opponent is bound to ultimately fail.
This past offseason, Kerr decided to completely rid the team of the fast-break offense and Terry Porter was named the new head coach.
However, the Suns learned this year that there has to be balance on offense for them to be successful.
Earlier in the year, the offense was too slow and Shaq was getting the ball too much.
However, in the Suns the last 15 games, besides their two losses with Shaq sitting out, they have done a great job of balancing their slow and fast pace offenses.
They have been doing a great job of getting the ball to O’Neal when they need to, but also running the old Sun’s style of offense when the opportunity arises.
With Shaq playing, the Suns are 10-3 in their last 13 games with all three losses coming in the last minute, and suddenly look like one of the NBA’s elite teams.
Some critics don’t think O’Neal is going to be able keep up current success rate the whole season, but with the way Phoenix has been resting him, I believe he will.
Shaq has missed six games this season and was once again inactive for what Terry Porter said was a "routine night off" on Thursday night as the Suns lost to the Nuggets 119-113.
If by playoff time Shaq continues playing at his current All-Star Level and this Sun’s offense can continue to develop even more chemistry, the Suns could be a title contender come playoff time.
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