Over the last couple of months, we’ve focused much of our NBA attention on the three blockbuster trades that went down within a couple weeks of each other. We spoke highly of the Lakers’ trade theft of Pau Gasol, and expressed some doubts about the moves for Jason Kidd and Shaquille O’Neal. Well, it turns out those concerns were justified. Pau’s Lakers? Moving on. J-Kidd and the Big Cactus? Gone fishin’.

Remember when there were whispers about the Mavericks breaking the Chicago Bulls’ record for most wins in a season last year? All was well in Dallas; they had the MVP, a rising star in Josh Howard and the bitter taste of defeat from their loss in the 2006 NBA Finals. But after falling to the upstart Golden State Warriors, the Mavs’ earth has seemingly rotated off their axis.

A more experienced team like the Mavs should not have been ousted in five games by the Hornets. As good as New Orleans has been all year, you would expect Dallas to show up in the postseason because of what happened last year. Didn’t happen. And that trade for Kidd turned out to be a nightmare, as the future Hall of Famer was abused by Chris Paul in five straight games. After such a great 2006 season, the Mavs’ entire franchise now appears to be snake bitten. Where do they go from here? They have a guy in Dirk Nowitzki who still refuses to show up in big games. And now they’re without their future point guard in Devin Harris, now playing for the Nets. Mark Cuban has done some great things over the years, but he screwed the pooch this time.

The Suns knew that something had to change. They had found out that defense wins championships after getting shellacked by the Spurs in two of the last three postseasons. But even with two giants inside, the Suns had no answer for the Spurs, who still managed to fly under the radar before the series started. All of the focus was on Shaq’s Suns, but how about those Spurs? We know how good they are, we just always seem to forget it. With two aging players in Steve Nash and Shaq, the Suns’ window of opportunity appears to be closing. Hell, it already has for their head coach.

So much for that. The Mavs and Suns made these blockbuster deals looking towards glory in April, May and June. But all of that now appears to be thrown out the window. But hey, at least Pau worked out.

Tonight marks the official debut of Shaquille O’Neal in a Phoenix Suns jersey. In a media hyped acquisition that can only rival Sir Charles Barkley’s arrival in Phoenix, the Suns feel like O’Neal is the final piece of the puzzle. He brings a defensive and rebounding mentality to the Suns, something that the team has lacked all season, ranking last in team rebounding. That’ll improve with O’Neal who asserts that he’s not expecting to be the superstar on the Suns, instead leaving that duty to the likes of the Canuck at point guard and Amare Stoudemire.

So now the table is set for O’Neal’s triumphant debut against, wouldn’t you know it, Kobe Bryant and the new-look Los Angeles Lakers. I hearken back to the days when the young Bryant was throwing lobs to the unstoppable O’Neal and the Lakers were racking up titles like it was nobody’s business. Remember Reggie Miller’s Pacers? Bryant and Shaq did them dirty in six games. Or how about the Allen Iverson led 76ers? The Lakers polished them off in five. Then there was Jason Kidd’s Nets team that got punished in a four game sweep. Yeah, Kobe and Shaq were a mighty combo.

Then the fall out happened. ESPN jerked it to the fact that Kobe demanded an ultimatum of keeping either him or Shaq. Shaq went to Miami and won a ring while Kobe stayed in LA and took first round playoff exits. The feud is over between the two, “allegedly”, and now it seems the only people who care about it live in Bristol, Connecticut and work for ESPN.

Tonight’s game should be a great one, but not for the story line. Here’s a line to follow; the Suns have the best record in the West and the Lakers are a mere game behind them. So when you tune into tonight’s game, don’t tune in for the fabricated story line of Shaq returning to face the Lakers. Tune in because, with O’Neal and the Lakers acquisition of Pau Gasol, both teams feel as if they’ve taken the necessary step to win a title. It should be a doozy.

It’s just not the same seeing the NBA Playoffs without the presence of The Diesel, Shaquille O’Neal. We have all been accustomed to viewing Shaq dominate players and then entertain reporters in the postgame press conference. O’Neal was on TNT’s postgame show, “Inside the NBA”, on Monday night dropping one-liners and breaking Charles Barkley’s eggs. Shaq’s commentary and funny outbursts got me thinking about one of his best press conference one-liners. Today, I bring you that clip. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Remember a few weeks ago when everyone thought, or better yet knew, the Miami Heat were done after losing Dwyane Wade? Well Shaquille O’Neal thinks otherwise. In fact, the entire Miami Heat team thinks otherwise.

Since losing Wade, this team has gone on a ridiculous 10-2 run, capped off with a win over Sacramento last night which leaves them tied for first place in their division. It has been an incredible turnaround for this team after nearly everyone counted them out. This isn’t meant to diminish the contributions or talent of Wade, he is one of the best players in the league, but without him, somehow the Heat are playing better.

Shaq is consistently scoring 20 points, and beyond that he’s getting help from everyone else, especially Eddie Jones and Jason Williams, who are doing a decent job filling in for Wade. The comeback of the Heat revolves completely around the catalyst in Shaq. He has absolutely taken over. He isn’t ready for people to be calling him washed up and over the hill. He has taken this team from decent to good, and a real threat in the East.

If I were any team in the Eastern Conference I would be very afraid. This Heat team is coming back and when they get Dwyane Wade back they’re going to be very tough to stop. They are finally playing like a team and that means only good things. If they can get Wade to go along with this new attitude then there is no reason they shouldn’t be representing the Eastern Conference come NBA Finals time.

Shaquille O’Neal put back on his police officer charade again in an attempt to bring law and order to Miami. This seems to be an ongoing theme with Shaq, that and not caring about basketball until the playoffs.So what was it this time? Was it more botched child porn raids? Unfortunately, not this time. This time it was just some idiot who hit Shaqs Escalade, and then decided to try to drive off and get away with it. News flash to that guy: that isn’t going to work with big Shaq behind the wheel.

Shaq and his bodyguard followed the man to a local gas station where Shaq went and got an on duty police officer to help out. Was this Shaq being a police officer, or was this Shaq just pissed off that someone hit his car? I’m guessing it was the fact that someone hit his car. The fact remains, Shaq should probably spend less time helping the police of Miami, and more time helping the struggling Heat. I know he’s injured, and worn down and old, but you gotta play in the regular season if you want your team to make the playoffs. For now, Shaq is busy roaming the streets of Miami, so make sure if you run into an Escalade, you don’t try to drive away.

Remember when Shaquille O’Neal entered law enforcement? Well, he’s now out in the field working cases against child pornography. Unfortunately, one of his first efforts on duty went about as well as his free throw shooting over the years: not very. Shaq was in on a raid with the special unit called “Blue Ridge Thunder” that battles child pornography. Not only does that unit sound like a really bad 1980s TV show, but they should probably figure out what house is really the culprit. The raid team went to the wrong home because the IP address was traced wrong. Whoops.

First of all, I’m really not sure why Shaq is going on a raid with SWAT when he’s just a volunteer officer. Shouldn’t he be eating at Denny’s with some bored 80 year old man? Volunteers probably don’t roll up into house raids very often. But then again, this is a 4 time NBA Champion and one of the funniest people ever.

I think the Miami Heat would prefer Shaq stay off the volunteer force until he’s retired from active duty in the NBA (crappy pun intended). Also, how terrifying would that image be? The sight of Shaq breaking down a door and storming a house is probably the most terrifying thing I can imagine, especially when I’m innocent of child porn. They better get an autographed jersey and Kazaam DVD out of the deal.