http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8939955/
O'Neal confident offseason moves will lead team to a championship
CORAL GABLES, Fla. - The temptation to play reporter was too strong for Dwyane Wade to resist, so he grabbed a microphone and asked the $100 million question.
“Shaq, now that you didn’t take all the money, what’s next for the Heat?” Wade asked, grinning.
Shaquille O’Neal hopes the eventual answer to that question is a championship.
“This year,” O’Neal said, “there ain’t no stoppin’ us.”
Speaking publicly for the first time since agreeing to a $100 million, five-year contract with the Miami Heat — who offered more money than O’Neal ultimately accepted — the 12-time All-Star center said Saturday that he believes a flurry of offseason moves has brought his team closer to that elusive NBA title.
“I’m getting to the point in my career where I do need firepower,” O’Neal said. “I want my career to be about championships. So I took one for the team, and that’s what a great team player does. I’m very grateful and I’m very honored that (Heat owner) Micky Arison did what he did and I appreciate it.”
By taking less money — he would have made $30.6 million this season under the terms of his old deal, which he opted out of — O’Neal gave the Heat far more flexibility. And once O’Neal’s deal got done, it took Miami president Pat Riley only a couple hours to spring into action.
He put together a trade that brought forward Antoine Walker from Boston, plus guard Jason Williams and forward James Posey from Memphis — all part of a five-team, 13-player deal that cost the Heat swingman Eddie Jones, and a pair of relatively little-used reserves from last year’s squad.
CK3: I hope Shaq is right this time.
Linear Mode
