Riley on Shaq: "If he wants to give back $10 million and play half a season..."

[Quick6]

Re: Riley on Shaq: "If he wants to give back $10 million and play half a season..."

You're right, this could turn into LA 2004. Riley shouldn't have said this publicly. Even though his point has a lot of truth in it, it just sounds hypocritical after he also took a nice little break himself.

Is Riley making 20 million a year?

[toneloc99]

Re: Riley on Shaq: "If he wants to give back $10 million and play half a season..."

I don't think this is about the physical, but the mental, guys.

Shaq lost a ton of weight when he came in, and he's largely kept it off, so I don't think his being in/out of shape is the huge issue. Shaq played excellent ball when wade was out, which shows that he can still be dominant when he wants to. The problem is Shaq's attitude that the regular season doesn't matter, and that the Heat can coast.. Phil let Shaq slack off as long as they made it into the playoffs, and now he's gotten the Heat players to buy into that. Remember, that was also a big problem for Stan Van, and he called Shaq out on it, which was the beginning of his end. Now Riles is sick of it also. There is no "switch". Snaq makes way too much bread to only go hard in half the games.

Kudos to Riles for making this kind of statement. He's got the mentality of a young superstar in Wade to worry about. LeBron has setteled into the same mindset, and the Cavs played pretty uninspired basketball this year.

Disagree, Shaq can still dominate, but not throughout the whole game. That has nothing to due with a mental approach. Has to due with him tiring as the game goes on due to poor conditioning. He could get away with that when he was 24 not at 34.

[videobastard]

Re: Riley on Shaq: "If he wants to give back $10 million and play half a season..."

Its not just shaq but the whole team. They thought they could cruise in the regular with any seed and make it back to the nba finals.

[4BiddenKnight]

Re: Riley on Shaq: "If he wants to give back $10 million and play half a season..."

That has nothing to due with a mental approach. Has to due with him tiring as the game goes on due to poor conditioning.

Exactly the same as saying Shaq didn't feel like hitting the gym and getting fit so he won't get tired as quickly. Which is almost the same as saying Shaq's to lazy to work hard on getting his conditioning right.