Not sure if you all heard about this, but an ESPN LA reporter posted a story about an "interesting" night be spent with King Douche to ESPN.com and not more then an hour later ESPN pulled it down...thanks to caching the story can be found at

http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/columns/story%3fid%3d5416131&d=66754466358425&mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&w=e2b28bc9,b8f1ca5c

My boss showed me this video at work this morning, and I can't stop replaying it. Steve Porter is the man

Just going to say it: Shaq hit them against the Kings. Sure, Donaghey and crew gave him 15 attempts to do it, but he still hit them.

My brother and I always play the "What-if" game with Shaq. What if he developed a 10-foot jump shot or something resembling a free throw shot (we decided 70% would be okay for him)? Would he have gone down as the greatest center ever? Would he have ever been traded by any team? My brother and I think that these two skills (or one, if just FTs) could have made him the greatest ever, not just one of the great centers.

Although the flip slip is about attitude and confidence: Does Shaq's being arrogant about free throw shooting (and staying in shape) coincide with a his
winner/championship attitude? Are the arrogance and confidence linked together? Like if had he cared about FTs, he might not have been as dominant (and confident) a force in his day. Look at this way, Karl Malone developed a 15-foot shot and broke all kinds of scoring records with his 15-footer and FT shooting, but doesn't have a ring for it.

Sorbo: Wasn't the one year he worked on his free throws (in Phoenix) the one year that the Big Voskuhl missed the playoffs?

Chris: He says that every year. He said that before every Lakers season. Shaq never works on free throws. He works on stealing people's TV ideas, undermining his teammates, and eating bacon double cheeseburgers; but he never works on free throws.

Although, he might just be confusing "work" with "throw shit at the rim off the palm of my hand."

-I just noticed I posted this in the wrong section. Is it possible to move it?

Steve Porter's NBA commercials sucked, the stuff he does for free is so much better.

However, the original Press Hop is still number 1 best press conference mashup ever.

Sorbo:

Yeah, but Diesel could absolutely FUCK UP some bacon double cheeseburgers!

Anyway, lets not get crazy here. The fact that Shaq was lazy in the offseason wasn't the reason for success. The reasons for his success were 1)great coaches (Riley, Jackson), and 2)great teammates (Kobe, Wade, hell even Penny). To counter your Karl Malone example, just look at MJ: he was cocky as hell, arrogant, competitive, etc etc, but like most great players, he was ALWAYS trying to play better and smarter in every area of the game. And MJ won a ring or two IIRC. So did Kobe. So did Bird. So did Olajuwan (to use a center as an example). All these guys were competitive to the max, arrogant, confident, and winners. And they were not too proud to work on their weaknesses.

I think it's an interesting idea, but ultimately a fallacy to think that if Shaq had cared about FT's, he wouldn't have been as dominant. He would have been fucking unstoppable. MORE unstoppable.

Anyway... who wins the bacon double cheeseburger-eating contest: Barkley or Shaq?

he 817 of 1,508 freebies

did he accidentally the freebies?

@Ak Dave: I love playing the "could" and "what if" games with sports. Other than maybe Wilt (who's suspect in the clutch), I don't think I can think of a player who dominated based simply off of pure physicality and quickness (not speed, but Big Baby-like quickness). It's weird to think how one guy could be so good and basically only be able to score within five feet of the basket (although Shaq is a good passer).

In some regard, I agree with you. I just think he could have been on a Kareem/Russell level had he just given a shit about shooting free throws and pulled his FT avg. up to 65%. As the saying goes: He is who we thought he was.

Barkley wins the bacon double cheeseburger contest. He's had more years of practice.

That's true Sorbo, once Shaq lost his quickness and some of his physicality (around 2006-2007) his effectiveness dropped like a rock. That's why Malone was still able to be an effective player late in his career, even winning MVP at age 35. Its because of his huge FT and mid-range jumpshooting improvement.

Btw this video the greatest thing ever created in the history of the entire universe. (Waltonism lol) I could watch it for hours.