Shaq is Pissed...Float Like a Butterfly

This happens once a year. Shaq starts getting on a roll, this year happens to be the best roll he has been on in a while, then the refs start clamping down on ticky tack fouls against the big fella. Now mind you the other night Shaq was in foul trouble for a second straight game and it led way to the monster game from Michael Doleac, including causing the Atlanta Hawks announcers to have a jaw dropping reaction (a must hear) to his posterization jam. Shaq has said he has a solution to the problem but I'm not so sure I agree with him...

''I told myself a long time ago when it gets like this, I'm just going to stop playing defense,'' O'Neal, a 7-1, 325-pound center, said. "Every time I touch somebody, [referees] are going to call something. So I have to go back to my mantra. Just stand there.''

I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I've really enjoyed the defensive resurgence from the big fella, as well as the rest of the Heaters. What Shaq needs to do is refer to the advice his father game him during last seasons playoffs, when fouls were being handed out more then free condoms at the high school nurses office. Phil Harrison suggested his son ditch the power game, and O'Neal did, to a degree. He mixed finesse and power, producing a collage of turnarounds and jumpers and drop-steps and dunks. Shaq used this method against the Bulls last season and poured in 30 and 20...

"I knew coming into the game that I was going to my finesse game," said O'Neal, who was 13-of-24 from the field. "I wasn't really trying to use the power because I was going to go to my jump hooks, turnarounds, fadeaways. I came in with the mind-set I was going to stay out of foul trouble — don't help, don't commit any silly fouls."

So Shaq. Do us all a favor and listen to your father. Use the force, but use it wisely. Your playing at an all time high and are in the best shape you've been all season, use the finesse and dominate the paint.