I think Shaquille O’Neal is an annoying has been. And even when he was great, I never thought he was great. Dominant? Check. Huge? Check. Hard as all hell to defend? Definite check. Great basketball player? Not so sure.

Sadly, I found Shaq less irritating when he ran his mouth and was actually good. As his career has descended and he’s bounced from team to team, I figured he’d just go away (or become a cop or something). But he hasn’t. And there’s a good piece on Yahoo! Sports that touches on Shaq and all of his annoyingness. A little bit from the piece in regards to Dwight Howard:

In the past year alone, Shaq called Howard an “impostor” and insisted that, “Everything he’s done, I’ve invented,” and on and on. On opening night of the NBA Finals, Shaq posted a goofy photo on Twitter of what a Dwight Howard and Stan Van Gundy child would look like. After five years of this, Howard still doesn’t get the reason that Shaq revels in ripping him.

“I can’t tell you why he’s said a lot of discouraging things,” Howard said Friday at the Staples Center. “I wish he wouldn’t say it because he’s one of the few guys that we all look up to.”

It goes on to state the obvious: That Shaq is rooting for Kobe and the Lakers because he doesn’t want Dwight Howard to do something in Orlando he could never accomplish — win a game in the Finals. There’s been rumors that Shaq might end up in Cleveland or LA by the beginning of next year, but I can tell you that I highly doubt Kobe wants Shaq back given the surge that Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom have provided — truthfully, Shaq would just slow them way down.

[Yahoo!]