Boston Celtics big man Shaquille O’Neal’s future remains undecided: NBA News
The 7 ft 1 giant centre of the Boston Celtics Shaquille O’Neal ended the season on a sad note as he silently limped off the court on Wednesday night in game-5 against Miami Heat. The Celtics lost that game 97-87 and were eliminated
from the Eastern Conference semi-finals.
O’Neal’s future is now quite uncertain, not only because of his leg injury but also because he is 39 years old now and it’s very hard to recover at this year of his life since he already re-aggravated his injury in his comeback
game.
The final statistics of O’Neal were zero score, zero rebounds, zero assist and zero minutes. Out of Boston’s 43 games this season O’Neal played in just three games because of his lower leg injury, initially the injury was considered
to be minor but eventually it end up derailing his 19th and possibly final season of his career.
Celtics coach Doc Rivers said, “This has been emotionally draining to him, more than you guys would know. He feels awful about this because this is why he came here, to get to the playoffs and then play in the playoffs. Not being
able to do that has really hurt him.”
O’Neal appeared in just two games of the playoffs both were against Miami and his appearances were also very brief. His only basket was a reverse layup and that was the play where upon landing he pulled his injury again, he was
in such a pain that he couldn’t even walk down to the other end of the court.
Rivers said, “I had Patrick Ewing in his last year with Orlando — and I played with him. I was the coach, telling him ’We’re not going to play you anymore.’ That’s an awful position, because what makes them great is their pride.
Even when they’re barely walking, in their minds they still think they can actually change the outcome of a game. Sometimes you have to be the one to tell them they can’t.”
Still O’Neal has choice to come again to the Celtics with $1.4 million next season. He would have more than four months of tenure to fully recover from his injury and join the camp even if there is no lock-out.
However, it depends on him whether he wants to continue or his body can handle the dogmatism of another season that includes lot of practices, games and trips, until Shaq will not come to a decision about his future this will remain
a mystery.
Miami assistant coach Keith Askins said that he believes whoever start this game has to retire one day whether one quit with his own will or they were forced out. Having said that Askins admired what Shaq has brought to the game
of basketball. He also said that Shaq is a very brilliant man and a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
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