37 y/o Shaquille O’Neal teaming up with LeBron James required a $500,000 cash payment
Shaquille O’Neal is among the most successful basketball players of all time.
Shaquille O’Neal is a 4-time NBA champion and was the best player in the last three mobs in NBA history. Superman was all Superman while he was a Kryptonite for many NBA franchises.
No one had an answer for Shaq as he leapt to the basket and smashed through dreams and basketballs with great power. O’Neal became one of the best NBA players of his era and a perennial star with his combination of size and skill.
Also read: LOOK: Kobe Bryant passes an easy layup to lead Shaquille O’Neal to 61 points, Shaq returns the favor
However, after his stints with the Lakers and Heat, Shaq was on a downhill trajectory. Or at least, that was the talk around Shaq.
True, Shaq wasn’t uprooting trees or in the best shape of his life to do so. But Big Diesel was far from finished. Big Shaq was still putting up 17.8 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game with the Phoenix Suns in his 17th NBA season.
How much would a 37-year-old Shaq be worth in such a scenario? Well, the Cavs made an offer that the Suns accepted albeit with an extra 0,000 in cash.
What did the Cavaliers have to do to get Shaq?
The Cavs parted ways with veteran Ben Wallace, Sasha Pavlovic and a second-round pick for O’Neal. This is in addition to an additional $500,000 in cash for the services of the veteran big man.
LeBron James needed a star and cried out for improvement. The Cavs’ star end was the league’s most prized asset and had to be kept happy if he was going to get past his impending free agency.
Unfortunately, the trade didn’t work out for the Cavs. Shaq was a shadow of his prime and LeBron ended up carrying a much bigger offensive load. The Cavaliers collided again in the Playoffs and hastened LeBron’s decision not to stay.
LeBron had given the Cavaliers a chance to build around him, and they failed. While LeBron returned to present his homeland with a ring, the relationship between the franchise and the player had at least temporarily fallen to rubble.
The idea of combining a peaky Shaq and a young LeBron seems absurd and terrifying. But it was closer to becoming a reality than we think.
Also read: Shaquille O’Neal Lost $400,000 While Performing a Nice Gesture for 25-Year-Old LeBron James
