O’Neal, the Cavs "other" free agent, praised the new Prudential Center
as being an NBA hotspot and said he would rather them not move to
Brooklyn in 2013.

"I think it’s better than most arenas, I think it’s one of the best
arenas in the country," O’Neal told The Post following the Cavaliers’
stunning second-round elimination against Boston on Thursday night.
"Hopefully they can stay there forever. I don’t know what’s going on
with the Brooklyn situation, but it says a lot for the city of Newark."
O’Neal has real-estate investments in Newark and is also intrigued in one day being a part-owner of the Nets because they now are in Newark. But he would want them to stay there. Shaq had long wondered why it took so long for the club to move to his hometown. Last season, while with Phoenix, he attended a Devils game at Prudential Center and got a grand tour by the owners.

O’Neal said he is happy to see the Nets have a new owner in Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov.

"It’s great that they are in Newark and have a new owner," O’Neal said.

O’Neal said two years ago in a published report on Nets’ ownership, "It’d be nice — real nice. I know the area, I know the people, it’s close to New York."

O’Neal, who missed nearly the final seven weeks of the regular season with torn ligaments in his thumb, did not have a good postseason in a starting role. His addition as one of the final pieces to a championship puzzle ultimately backfired because he didn’t mesh well with LeBron James.

Nevertheless, the 350-pound O’Neal could make a good backup center to young Brook Lopez and show him the ropes as he nears retirement.

"I’ve got a lot of options," O’Neal said. "We’ll just see. I still got to sit down and look at all my options. I don’t want to comment on [the Nets]. It’s too early."

But Shaq, at 38 the NBA’s oldest active player, wants to keep playing a few more years.

"Of course. I missed 360 games due to injury in my career so by my calculations I still have 3.7 years left," O’Neal said. "That means I’m going to play until I’m 41. I’ve missed a lot of games, so I still feel I can play."

Perhaps O’Neal became the victim of the vaunted Sports Illustrated cover jinx as he graced the cover this week with the headline: "Win a Ring for the King." It didn’t happen and now it’s doubtful Cleveland will re-sign him. He was slow on defense in the Boston series and got eaten up in Game 6 by Kevin Garnett. In the playoffs, O’Neal averaged 11.5 points and 5.5 rebounds.

"There are a lot of free agents on the team," Shaq said. "We just have to sit back, and I’m sure everybody’s going to do what’s best for them."

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/nets/new_jersey_shaq_Zaa9VjZtM29skkU7lpEyRM

But he came up short as the Cavaliers lost to the Boston Celtics, 94-85,
on Thursday night in TD Garden to lose the best-of-seven Eastern
Conference semifinals, four games to two.

"Obviously everyone is disappointed, but as a person and as a
professional, I think I did everything they asked me to do," said
O’Neal, who missed the final six weeks of the regular season after
tearing a ligament in his right thumb. "I got injured, came back in
better shape. I did everything they asked me to do."

What he and the Cavs could not do was figure out how to stop the Celtics, from the Big Three of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen to point guard Rajon Rondo.

"I just think we made too many mistakes," O’Neal said. "Turned the ball over, really had no answer for Rondo at times. He’s a great point guard. . . . It starts with defense and our defensive numbers slipped for some reason.

"You’ve to play hard and smart. We gave two games away. Actually three games, we even gave this game away against a veteran team that’s really, really playing hard. We made too many mistakes, especially that home game the other day. Very, very disappointing. We had a chance to win it here tonight and we played hard, but we made too many crucial mistakes."

That being said, O’Neal still thinks the Cavaliers should be considered title contenders, even if they won’t win a title this year.

"Definitely," he said. "But there have been a lot of title-contending teams on paper, and you still got to go out and get it done. We didn’t go out and get it done. This is a team that could have gotten it done, but it just didn’t happen."

So, what does happen now? O’Neal is a free agent now and wants to keep playing.

"Of course," he said. "I missed 360 games because of injury in my career, so by my calculations I still have 3.7 years left. That means I’m going to play until I’m 41. I’ve been here 17 years but I’ve missed a lot of games, so I still feel I can play this game."

http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2010/05/disappointed_shaquille_oneal_w.html

The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Phoenix Suns have come to an agreement
on a blockbuster trade that sends Shaquille O’Neal to Cleveland to team
with LeBron James, according to sources.

The deal has been agreed to in principle and is expected to be finalized Thursday, according to sources.

Cleveland will send Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic to Phoenix for the
future Hall of Famer. Sources said the Suns will also receive the 46th
pick in Thursday’s NBA draft and $500,000.

The trade gives the Cavs a player they’ve coveted since February. With
center Zydrunas Ilgauskas starting to break down, adding Shaq to the
roster gives them a dominant force in the middle. The Cavs were
obviously unhappy with their ability to defend Dwight Howard in the
playoffs and bringing Shaq into the fold should help. O’Neal averaged
17.8 points and 8.4 rebounds per game last season and made his 15th
All-Star game.

The Cavaliers were also in talks with New Orleans about obtaining Tyson
Chandler. If they had not made the trade for O’Neal, they would have
traded for Chandler, according to a source.

The Cavs felt O’Neal was the better option because he has just one year
left on his contract, and will not eat up cap space that will enable
them to pursue free agents such as Chris Bosh in next summer’s
star-studded free agent class. Chandler, who had injury problems last
postseason, has a player option for $12.7 million in 2010-2011 that he
is likely to pick up.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4285489

• The Shaquille O’Neal-to-the-Cavs rumor seems to have some legs, but it’s not like they’re running sprints.

O’Neal no doubt would love to come to the Cavs to play with LeBron James. But reports indicate that he wants a contract extension and some assurance that James will be here past 2010.

Nobody has that assurance.

• Too, would you give a guy who’s going to be 38 this season more than the $20 million he’s due this season?

• The Cavs’ efforts have been to position themselves to make a splash in free agency in 2010, to add a player like Chris Bosh to play with James.

Extending Shaq would hamper those efforts greatly.

• One great thing about acquiring Shaq — well, there’s a lot of great things — would be his near manic obsession with stopping Dwight Howard.

O’Neal seems determined to belittle Howard at every turn, as if Howard’s presence is somehow tarnishing Shaq’s legacy. So Shaq is going out of his way to diminish Howard — to the point of calling him an ”impostor.”

http://www.ohio.com/sports/cavs/48687717.html

The Cavaliers are not the only team that has inquired about a trade with the Suns for Shaquille O’Neal. Among a small group of others is the Knicks, but before we go for a drive to Rumorville, a source said it was mainly Donnie Walsh doing his due diligence and did not engage in any serious discussions.
O’Neal, 37, has one year left at $20 million and, according to several persons with knowledge of the situation, would welcome a trade to New York. But the preference would be to move to a championship contender such as the Cavs.

Read the full article from

http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/basketball/knicks/blog/2009/06/jennings_wants_to_be_a_knick_t.html