Once again, Shaquille O’Neal is making news for the wrong reasons. Over the course of his surefire Hall of Fame career, Shaq has numerous times purposely alienated his current team to force their hand in a trade. This time though he is dropping hints that is he is unhappy using his Twitter page of all things.  He has been communicating back and forth with Mark Cuban for the past few weeks. Shaq’s recent comments regarding Robert Sarver just add more fuel to this fire:

“There are two types of business owners,”  “Do you want to win or do you want to save money? Period. Do you want to win or do you want to save money? (Mark Cuban) spends money. I don’t think he wants to save money. I’ve been around 17 years and that’s what it is. You either want to win and don’t really care about the salary cap, or you want to be under the salary cap. At the end of the season, I’m sure everybody will be prepared for whatever happens.”

Personally, I think Shaquille O’Neal is way out of bounds here. I have never been a big proponent of what Robert Sarver has done since he took over as owner. He ran Colangelo out of town, hired his neighbor Steve Kerr and then proceeded to railroad D’Antoni out of town as a tag team combo. However, to say he is not willing to spend money is absolutely outrageous! The Phoenix Suns are currently carry the 6th highest salary of all 30 of the NBA teams. 4 players in their starting lineup make more than 12 million per season (Nash, O’Neal, Stoudemire, Richardson). The fact the Suns were willing to trade for Shaq in the 1st place is indication enough that they are willing to spend money. Shaq made 20 million this season, which is the 8th highest salary in the NBA. Despite his resurgencethis season, there is no way he is worth that type of money. Dallas currently is also over the salary cap with the Suns and will have to pay the luxury tax as well. Therefore, for the Suns to trade Shaq to Dallas similar salary would have to be returned. The Suns will definitely be in cost-cutting  mode this off-season and rightfully so. What is the point of carrying a 76 million dollar payroll if it doesn’t even get you into the playoffs? Therefore, Sarver will be shopping Shaq to a team under the salary cap that can take his bloated contract on and return some youth to an aging Suns squad.

Last night, the Suns were officially eliminated from playoff contention and now Shaq is taking up the victim role. “Of course,” O’Neal said. “I always get the blame. I accept that [expletive], though. I understand that.” Honestly, how can he not expect to get the blame, he was up in the luxury boxes after the trade for Marion occurred pointing to his ring finger. He sure did not deliver a championship that he was implying; in his first full season with the Suns he couldn’t even help them into the playoffs.

This off-season Shaq will surely get his wish to get out of Phoenix like he always does (see how he left Orlando, Los Angeles and Miami). The only thing Shaq brought with him to Phoenix was his sense of humor and entertaining personality. This will be sorely missed when he is gone. However, for any team looking to avoid drama and empty promises…avoid Shaq like the plague.