Always Anna

I don’t miss him. At all. So stop asking me.

I’m glad that he’s happy with his new partner, and that he’s doing well in Florida. He’s having the best year of his life? Good for him. But stop saying that I’d be better off if he’d stuck around - I wouldn’t be.

Shaq didn’t give a crap about being on the Lakers. He didn’t make any effort at all the last two seasons, instead acting like a slow, fat baby. He put off getting surgery on his toe (and knee) until the start of training camp, saying, “I got hurt on company time, so I’ll rehab on company time.” This is a guy that gets paid milliions of dollars to play a game? Then, when he finally did show up to play, he didn’t even try. He wandered up and down the court, apparently thinking that there’s no running in basketball. In short, he acted like the Lakers should be grateful for his presence, and ignored the fact that we needed his game.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Shaq is a great player; a deserving future hall-of-famer that has contributed a lot to this sport. And he may very well deserve the MVP award this year for the way he turned Miami around. I’m psyched to see him play tomorrow night in Boston (yeah, I’m going!). But he wouldn’t have been like that in LA. He didn’t care about being on the Lakers.

As for Kobe - the Lakers did the right thing in trying to keep him happy. This doesn’t mean that I think he should have all the power he has now - no player should be in charge of a team, in my opinion. But, it is true that Kobe will be the cornerstone of the future Laker’s team, and I think that he can lead them back to greatness. BUT, he can’t do it alone - no great player can. He needs a great coach (I want Phil back!) and a great team that knows how to play together. This team didn’t - it was all new, young players that don’t yet know what it takes to win. They need time to grow… and a big man.

But not Shaq.