When the trade first went down, an ESPN Poll indicated that 71% of the country thought it was a bad trade for Phoenix. At first blush, I must admit I did as well. After watching Shaq during his time in the Valley of the Sun, I have started to change my thinking.

I am convinced that Steve Kerr had to “go for it”. The move gives the Suns a chance to win the title and offsets what the Lakers were able to pull off getting Pau Gasol from Memphis. Having said all that, I can’t quite get my arms around what it is going to look like with the “Diesel” in a Suns Uniform. Shaq brings a magnetic personality, a bigger than life presence to the Suns. Does he have anything left in the tank? The Suns Medical Staff was pleasantly suprised how good his hip looked and feel they can get him rolling.

I’m like the guy who just bought a brand new sports car and can’t wait to drive it. I can’t wait for Shaq to make his debut!!! If you think its surreal now, wait until that night he comes onto the floor with his new teammates. I get chills just thinking about it!

15 years ago today, Shaq Daddy brought down the basket.   (NBAE Photos)

Believe it or not, it was 15 years ago Thursday that Shaq Daddy – he hadn’t adopted the Diesel or Big Aristotle nicknames yet – made his first NBA appearance in Phoenix in front of a national television audience.

Like most fans, I was fired up for the Sunday afternoon game, caught up in the marquee magic of the big kid with the bigger smile from LSU. Just a 20-year-old rookie myself at the time (I had just started working at the Suns Team Shop at Metrocenter), I couldn’t wait to see the Blue Chipper go head to head with Sir Charles and Co.

I actually taped the NBC broadcast, and after some extensive digging through my closets around 1 AM last night, I located that old Kodak VHS “High Quality” tape, which also has the 1993 All-Star Game on it, I might add.

[Video: Shaq Attack]

If you saw the game, you know the one I’m referring to. Less than three minutes into the game, Shaq went up for a rebound and dunk and… well, I should probably let the guys who were actually involved tell you the story:

“I was on the court at the time,” says then-Suns center/current Suns VP of Player Programs Mark West. “Anthony Bowie was going to the basket, and I went over to help on defense. Shaq just came from behind me, and he dunks the ball, and all of a sudden the basket just collapsed.”

Suns broadcaster Tom Chambers, an All-Star forward at the time, just laughs when remembering the surprising result of Shaq’s slam.

“It was like this big dinosaur-looking thing going down, just in slow motion,” says TC. “It wasn’t like it happened real quick. We all just stood back and watched this thing go down. It was incredible.”

Suns VP of Facility Management Alvan Adams had been retired for five years at the time, but probably felt as though he was the one who had been dunked on.

“I was at the center of it, because the referees knew that I was involved with the facility,” he says. “I was the sporting event coordinator at the time. I wasn’t in charge of the facility yet, although I was the one who bought the goals. I had inspected them and bought them. [Read more...]

After 40 long years of wandering the desert in search of an all powerful center the Suns have FINALLY found one.

Shaq was brought to Phoenix for one reason: a championship trophy. (NBAE Photos)

And while Shaquille O’Neal is in the twilight of one of the ten greatest careers in NBA history, he’s still the most dominating physical presence in the game. And the question for me is not whether the Suns should have dealt Shawn Marion (with Marcus Banks thrown in) for him, but how they could possibly have afforded to turn down the deal.

Granted, the price was high. Marion was the team’s most versatile defender. The guy they most often turned to in crunch time to guard whoever was causing them the most grief, whether it be another small forward, a big forward, or even a center or point guard. And offensively he was a perfect fit for Coach Mike’s high speed offense.

And yes, there are those who see the signing of the lumbering O’Neal as a concession by Coach Mike that his system, while wildly popular and highly entertaining, really can’t go all the way.

Addressing the second point first, I’m not persuaded the Big Diesel is all THAT lumbering, nor do I think his presence is going to slow Coach Mike’s system all THAT much. As long as Steve Nash is at the controls you’re never going to see the Suns turn plodding before your very eyes.

Back to the first point, I fully recognize how much Marion has meant to the Suns, and there aren’t more than a half dozen players in the league I would have traded him for at this stage. But Shaq is one of them.

It’s been several years since he was a truly good defender, but The Diesel’s very presence in the low post (not to mention the locker room) should make the Suns stronger in one of their weakest areas.

And speaking of presence, Shaq’s already created the biggest buzz in these parts since Charles Barkley hit town. The press conference confirming this deal drew what had to be a record regular-season crowd. And his image on the Jumbotron drew a sustained standing ovation from the sellout crowd in the US Airways Center. (Shaq, ever the showman, milked the applause by pointing meaningfully at his ring finger.)

And although he probably didn’t, Coach Mike could have greeted The Diesel with the same speech the late Cotton Fitzsimons greeted The Chuckster:

“Chuck’, said Cotton, “let me explain something to you. You weren’t brought here to fill up the building or win a lot of games. We’re already doing that. You were brought here for one reason and one reason only, to win us a title.”

That’s Shaq’s mission, just as was Chuck’s, the only difference being that at his advanced age Shaq won’t be required to do quite as much heavy lifting. In fact, truth be told, he was probably brought here to help the Suns deal with just two or three teams, and maybe even just ONE team.

There are two other similarities between The Diesel and The Chuckster. Like O’Neal, the Suns paid a high price for Barkley (you remember Jeff Hornacek). And like Barkley, O’Neal is one of the all-time great quote machines.

There are understandable concerns about how much Shaq has left in the tank, but let me say this about those concerns:

If you look closely at his long career you will be struck by two things. One, he hasn’t always been motivated to stay in top shape and bring his A game to the arena. And two, whenever he has been so motivated he’s been one of the most unstoppable forces on the planet.

He’s never going to hit those heights again, of course, but he won’t have to in order to help the Suns. And for what it’s worth, I think he will be motivated to give his new team the best of what he’s got left.

In case you haven’t caught my drift, I think this was a great and gutsy move by rookie general manager Steve Kerr. A move, I further think, that underscored his belief the Suns couldn’t advance beyond their present level without some more muscle.

The bottom line: Coach Mike cut to the heart of the chase when he said, “This gives us an even better chance to win the NBA title than we had before.”

To which I can only add, Amen!

I imagine many of you are still feeling the same confusion I experienced. But consider this: Steve Kerr, David Griffin, Mike D’ Antoni and Robert Sarver are not crazy, impulsive types who would make a panic move in direct response to the Lakers’ trade for Pau Gasol last week, as is being portrayed throughout the media right now. While I can’t claim to know any of these men personally, I’ve met all of them, and my impression is these guys know basketball, and I think they know their team. Historically, the Suns are not prone to bonehead trades. Sure, there have been a few (DJ for Rick Robey??), but none in a long time. Griffin and D’Antoni have good track records in this regard, and while Kerr is the new kid on the block, my sense of him has always been that he’s got a sharp basketball mind. They wouldn’t make this deal unless they’d really thought about it, and really thought it would help the team.

Is this trade an admission that the Suns’ style of play doesn’t work? No. My hoops-savvy pal Kenji reminded me that the 1972 Lakers, which won the NBA title and set the record for consecutive wins, was very much a running team, and they did it with a center, Wilt, who was not fast. Further, the Showtime Lakers didn’t have a running center either – but rather Kareem. So I think the Suns will still run and score a lot of points.

The Suns’ biggest weaknesses in the Nash era have been defense and rebounding. Specifically, interior defense and offensive rebounding. Night after night, they have trouble handling opposing centers, doesn’t matter who. Andrew Bynum, who is admittedly emerging as a good center, eats the Suns for lunch. Al Jefferson posted consecutive career highs in points and boards against the Suns in two games this season. Even Nick Collison destroys the Suns inside. The Suns actually play pretty good perimeter defense. It’s on the inside where they get killed, by easy dunks out of the half-court set, or by put-backs.

So, the reasonable question is, why didn’t the Suns keep Kurt Thomas, who could address those issues at a fraction of the price? Well, because Kurt’s good, but he doesn’t force a team to plan their offense against him. He’s not a shot blocker, and he lacks, for lack of a better term, presence. Shaq may not be the mega-star he used to be, but when he’s healthy enough to play, there’s three things he can still do better than most centers in the league: defend, rebound and pass. The West is, obviously, loaded with centers, from Yao to Chandler to Duncan (come on, he’s a center) to Bynum to Kaman. The Suns simply haven’t had an answer for those kinds of guys this year, and it’s made it harder than in the past for the Suns to control tempo, and when they haven’t been able to control tempo, they’ve been cooked. Shaq gives them a viable presence in the low post on both defense and offense, something the Suns haven’t had since Danny Schayes (kidding).

Steve Nash is 34. Grant Hill is 36. Amare is 25, but has had three knee surgeries. The Suns aren’t thinking about long-term success here — It’s all or nothing time. Shawn Marion is a fabulous player, and I won’t bash him on his way out of town, but while he offers a lot of superlative skills in a lot of different areas, of the Suns’ old core (Nash, Marion, Stoudemire), his skills were the easiest to replace at reasonably close to the same level. The Suns will miss him most on defense, but Shaq should take up some of the slack there, Diaw is underrated on defense, and Hill has shown commitment to that end of the court. The Suns still have plenty of guys to finish on the break (and now Amare can be one of them, as he won’t be called on to rebound as much), and plenty of three-point shooters.

The key phrase in all of this, of course, is “if Shaq can stay healthy.” Recent history, in all honesty, doesn’t suggest he can. He’s played fourteen seasons, and has played four games since the end of December. Even when he has been “healthy” this year, his numbers have been down across the board, suggesting he may have more little things nagging at him than just a bad hip. But reports are that he’s at as low a weight as he’s been in a while, and aside from the hip, in good condition. He’s not going to play a lot for the Suns right away, and he may not help them win games right away. I predict a lot of impatience and second-guessing around the Suns for the next few weeks.

I think the Suns might be willing to sacrifice the top seed in the Western Conference. Look what it did for Dallas last year, and this season, the West is so tight that the top 8 teams will be practically interchangeable. I think the Suns can easily win enough games, with or without Shaq, to secure a playoff spot on sheer talent alone. I think the team will severely limit Shaq’s minutes in the regular season, resting him often, maybe for several games at a time, in order to let him acclimate and recover as best he can for the playoffs. I think the hope is he’ll play just enough to develop chemistry with his teammates, and them with him, to get to know his role in and become comfortable with the team’s schemes. During the regular season, he’ll play most against the teams with centers the Suns could likely meet in the playoffs, but even then, they’ll limit him to 20-25 minutes. In the playoffs, they’ll hope he’ll be reasonably fresh and can be a factor.

In the meantime, the Suns will slide Amare back to power forward, where he should dominate and run. A lot. Diaw will likely start at the small forward spot, and he’s played much better lately as a starter. He seems to thrive on starter’s minutes – as proved in last night’s game against New Orleans. Grant Hill will come off the bench, which he’s shown he’s more than willing to do. There’s a scenario in which this could all work out. It’s a gamble, but it could work. High risk carries high reward.

Down the line, the Suns will rebuild around Amare, Barbosa and, presumably, Diaw, which is still a better-than-decent core. But this deal was made strictly for this May and June. Not for the years after, and not, I don’t think, for February, March and April. People will be quick to call it a success or failure right away or in a few weeks, but the real results won’t be seen until May and June.

Can you dig it?

Shaquille O’Neal will bring buzz, exposure and basketball frenzy back to the Valley. (NBAE Photos)

Charles took non-NBA fans and turned them into basketball fanatics who couldn’t wait to watch the next Suns game and witness the next unpredictable move by Sir Charles.

I also felt it was a curse because when Barkley left for Houston it was my belief that the Suns would never be able to generate that kind of passion, that kind of exposure, that kind of basketball frenzy ever again.

Well here we are witnessing the Second Coming with Shaq. His press conference and arrival in Phoenix has been met with a Barkley-like Buzz along with the skepticism which will only fuel the drama as this titanic trade plays out. Media outlets locally and nationally carried his press party live. Radio stations phones are lighting-up. The internet blogs are overflowing with “expert” opinions and predictions of whether this gamble by the Suns will pay off.

In my mind, it has already paid off in terms of interest and intrigue world-wide! Shaq flashed his flamboyant personality–displaying his wit, his playfulness, and his overall magnetic appeal. And like one of his vicious power james, he hammered home the message of leading this team to its first NBA title, all the while making the critics “eat their words.” Shaq is resolute about taking Amare to the next level and making Raja Bell an even better shooter. He stopped just short of guaranteeing a championship, but added that guarantee could come after a few practices with his new team.

This is one dynamic player and personality who has taken all 3 of his previous teams to the NBA Finals. Is he the same player he was even two years ago? Maybe not, but he doesn’t have to be when surrounded by Nash, Amare, Grant Hill, Raja, Barbosa and Diaw. Think about opposing coaches game-planning for this double-barreled attack. The Suns can now dismantle opponents with their speed game and new-found power play.

Believe me, I know what Shawn Marion provided. As I’ve said in the past, he covered more real estate than Century 21 and was the quintessential Sun in Mike D’Antoni’s system. But in the end, he wanted out. He asked to be traded. He could have opted-out and walked away after this season leaving the Suns with nothing in return. So the Suns made the bold move, and it’s no disgrace to be dealt for quite possibly the most dominating big man this league has ever seen. Now we will see if this roll of the dice works on the court. It’s NBA theatre at its best featuring the Biggest (and hopefully Baddest) star this league has to offer. Tune in to the Shaq and Awe of Suns basketball. I’m sure you will!!