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!]

So it’s halftime. And the Magic and Lakers set a new Finals’ record with the fewest points in the first quarter, scoring a comined 30 points (15-15 at the end of the first quarter). It’s 40-35 now, Lakers, and don’t be surprised if the Lake Show takes this one away in the second half. They’re up five right now, and that’s with Kobe going 2-5 from the field for 6 measley points. Rashard Lewis is single handedly carrying the Magic, scoring 18 of his 20 points in the second quarter.

The last couple of days I’ve bashed LeBron. Well, I’ve bashed him way before then, but now I’m really bashing him, and feel I’ve got something to actually back it before (where at first it was just out of total spite and hate). No, seriously, though — Adrian Wojnarowski writes a great piece over on Yahoo! Sports about King James and his sudden exit after losing Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals, without so much as a “Hey, nice job” to anyone on the Magic.

You people are going to keep telling me this guy is MJ? C’mon. He’s not even Larry or Magic. Let’s let him pass those two before we throne him as the next Airness.

[King James left the playoffs as a loser]

[Yahoo!]

Coaches get hit for everything come playoff time. Is the team has a big lead with just a few games left in the regular season, they’re told they need to bench their players to avoid injury. Then when their team comes out in Round 1 flat and loses, it’s because they benched their players for too long. And if they don’t bench them and someone gets hurt, they were idiots, they had home court wrapped up, they were in, and so-and-so should’ve never been on the court.

It’s a Catch 22, really. I’ve got one for you now: Jameer Nelson may be playing for the Magic come Thursday night.

Nelson participated in a full team practice Tuesday for the first time since tearing the labrum in his right shoulder Feb. 2. While Nelson and coach Stan Van Gundy still said the point guard’s status won’t be determined until game day, players said Nelson looked “terrific” and expect him to be on the court against the Los Angeles Lakers.

“I expect to see him out there at some point in the series,” backup point guard Anthony Johnson said.

Nelson had what was then called season-ending surgery Feb. 19. Nelson’s rehabilitation was supposed to take at least another two months.

Game 1 of the Finals is Thursday night in Los Angeles, and healed or not, Nelson wants to play.

“I’m not saying I’m any tougher or stronger than anybody, but I’ve been known to do some amazing things sometimes,” Nelson said Tuesday, again lobbying for playing time.

On paper, this is good news for the Magic, who would get the return of an All-Star at maybe the most important position in basketball. However, if he comes out cold and out of sync, the papers will kill SVG on his decision to play a guy in the most important series after having been out of action for months. My take on it? I like Jameer Nelson. But your team got here without him — no need to get the guy back right now.

[ESPN]

If you know me, you know I”m not the biggest LBJ fan. I’m just not. I’m not saying he isn’t good, I’m not saying he isn’t the best player in the league, I just don’t like cheering for a guy that can blatantly charge on a regular basis and always watch the defender get called for a block.

So I’m going to point out that LeBron James won’t address the media after his crushing Game 6 loss in Orlando. Dan Wetzel, who wrote the piece, goes on and on about how the Cavs have to get something around LeBron.

I’m going to go back to my point: The Cavs got enough around LeBron to win 66 regular season games. To lose only one real home game all regular season. If they did all that, didn’t they do enough to give him a chance in the playoffs? The team stormed through the first eight games, and they were given the title already. There were multiple comments about how with Mo Williams, LeBron had a real No. 2 threat. Now they’ve lost, got dismantled by the Magic, and suddenly the guy had nothing around him.

Please go play in Europe when your contract expires. Maybe there you’ll get called for a foul.

[Yahoo!]

If you watch the video above, it’s pretty understandable. Even as a Magic fan, I imagine it’s pretty hard to stick up for a guy who’s a 270 pound piece of muscle and lunges his elbow at a guy’s face. Chalk this thing up to to the Sixers — they’ll be playing the Magic minus starting point guard Courtney Lee, and now with no Howard, there won’t be much of a chance.

[ESPN]
[Youtube]

Here’s the dunk alluded to in the earlier post. It was the best dunk of the night, and it scored a 40-something, much to the disappoval of the fans. You won in my book, Rudy!

The latest Power Rankings are out, and since I’m too lazy to do one myself, I’ll just link you to theirs. A couple of notes:

• The Celtics are back to No. 1. Yay. I just love the Celtics, with overglorified players like KG, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce. Please, LA or Cleveland, please beat them in the playoffs.
• The Nuggets are No. 6. How is it that one good point guard can change a team around so much? No AI, insert Chauncey, and this team is rolling.
• At 23-19, the Heat are No. 10. I know they’ve been surging, but c’mon. No. 10?
• In the same conference and same division, and three games up on the Heat, the Hawks are No. 11. This is the power Dwyane Wade has on a team.
• Beware the 76′ers, who sit at No. 12. After their terrible start, they’ve come on strong and are looking like the playoff threat they were last year.
• At No. 30, is there really any hope for the Kings? They don’t have the worst record, at least, which belongs to No. 26, the 9-35 Thunder.

It’s probably not the new Dream Team — I mean, how can you beat Hakeem, Clyde, Charles, Scottie and MJ? — but it’s as formidable a crew as the U.S. has put together in a long, long time. The 12 man team was named today, and it lists some pretty good names.

The team is headlined by the likes of Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, but joining them will be Jason Kidd, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Chris Bosh, Tayshaun Prince, Michael Redd, Dwight Howard, Carlos Boozer, and Carmelo Anthony.

Though I’d leave a few of those off — there’s got to better player than Redd, Prince, and Kidd — it’s a solid squad. The starting five will more than likely be Paul, Kobe, D-Wade, LBJ, and D. Howard. That leaves guys like Jason Kidd, Deron Williams, and Chris Bosh coming off the bench, which is about as good a sixth, seventh and eighth man as it gets.

Oddly, not a single player from the World Champion Celtics. No one in LA’s complaining about that one.

With the ridiculous 21-1 (is that what it’s at now?) home record in the second round of the playoffs, with only LA and Detroit winning road games, I wanted to go back and figure out why. Steve Czaban, host of the first team on XM’s Fox Sports Radio, made a point a week or so ago about the refs in the NBA getting too caught up in the game and making fouls because of it. Bored out of my mind, I did some research. The top team mentioned is the away team, meaning the bottom team is the home team. At the bottom, I have the differential in free throws, putting either a (+) — if the home team shot more free throws, and by how many — or a (-) — if the home team shot less free throws, and by how many.

Utah Jazz/LA Lakers Series
-Game 1:
Utah team fouls 33, Utah free throws 30
LA Lakers team fouls 27, LA Lakers free throws 46
Differential: +19 for the home team

-Game 2:
Utah team fouls 30, Utah free throws 16
LA Lakers team fouls 20, LA Lakers free throws 43
Differential: +27 for the home team

-Game 3:
LA Lakers 23 team fouls, LA Lakers free throws 37
Utah Jazz 28 team fouls, Utah Jazz free throws 28
Differential: -9 for the home team

-Game 4:
LA Lakers 33 team fouls, LA Lakers 25 free throws
Utah Jazz 27 team fouls, Utah Jazz 45 free throws
Differential: +20 free throws for the home team

-Game 5:
Utah Jazz 31 team fouls, Utah Jazz 28 free throws
LA Lakers 20 team fouls, LA Lakers 42 free throws
Differential: +14 free throws for the home team

-Game 6:
LA Lakers 24 team fouls, LA Lakers 38 free throws
Utah Jazz 26 team fouls, Utah Jazz 25 free throws
Differential: -13 for the home team

Orlando Magic/Detroit Pistons

-Game 1:
Orlando Magic 23 team fouls, Orlando Magic 15 free throws
Detroit Pistons 17 team fouls, Detroit Pistons 18 free throws
Differential: +3 for the home team

-Game 2:
Orlando Magic 23 team fouls, Orlando Magic 23 free throws
Detroit Pistons 22 team fouls, Detroit Pistons 28 free throws
Differential: +6 for the home team

-Game 3:
Detroit Pistons 20 team fouls, Detroit PIstons 28 free throws
Orlando Magic 23 team fouls, Orlando Magic 28 free throws
Differential: Even

-Game 4:
Detroit Pistons 23 team fouls, Detroit Pistons 15 free throws
Orlando Magic 19 team fouls, Orlando Magic 17 free throws
Differential: +2 for the home team

-Game 5:
Orlando Magic 27 team fouls, Orlando Magic 28 free throws
Detroit Pistons 24 team fouls, Detroit Pistons 32 free throws
Differential: +4 for the home team

San Antonio Spurs/New Orleans Hornets

-Game 1:
San Antonio Spurs 16 team fouls, San Antonio Spurs 21 free throws
New Orleans Hornets 17 team fouls, New Orleans Hornets 15 free throws
Differential: -6 for the home team

-Game 2:
San Antonio Spurs 21 team fouls, San Antonio Spurs 19 free throws
New Orleans Hornets 19 team fouls, New Orleans Hornets 24 free throws
Differential: +5 for the home team

-Game 3:
New Orleans Hornets 21 team fouls, New Orleans Hornets 21 free throws
San Antonio Spurs 20 team fouls, San Antonio Spurs 21 free throws
Differential: Even

-Game 4:
New Orleans Hornets 17 team fouls, New Orleans Hornets 12 free throws
San Antonio Spurs 18 team fouls, San Antonio Spurs 20 free throws
Differential: +8 for the home team

-Game 5:
San Antonio Spurs 30 team fouls, San Antonio Spurs 18 free throws
New Orleans Hornets 23 team fouls, New Orleans Hornets 33 free throws
Differential: +15 for the home team

-Game 6:
New Orleans Hornets 19 team fouls, New Orleans Hornets 13 free throws
San Antonio Spurs 21 team fouls, San Antonio Spurs 18 free throws
Differential: +5 free throws for the home team

-Game 7
Monday Night

Cleveland Cavaliers/Boston Celtics

-Game 1:
Cleveland Cavaliers 23 team fouls, Cleveland Cavaliers 26 free throws
Boston Celtics 21 team fouls, Boston Celtics 18 free throws
Differential: -8 for the home team

-Game 2:
Cleveland Cavaliers 27 team fouls, Cleveland Cavaliers 27 free throws
Boston Celtis 26 team fouls, Boston Celtics 38 free throws
Differential: +11 for the home team

-Game 3:
Boston Celtics 27 team fouls, Boston Celtics 24 free throws
Cleveland Cavaliers 21 team fouls, Cleveland Cavaliers 33 free throws
Differential: +12 for the home team

-Game 4:
Boston Celtics 17 team fouls, Boston Celtics 24 free throws
Cleveland avaliers 17 team fouls, Cleveland Cavaliers 18 free throws
Differential: -6 for the home team

-Game 5:
Cleveland Cavaliers 18 team fouls, Cleveland Cavaliers 41 free throws
Boston Celtics 27 team fouls, Boston Celtics 25 free throws
Differential: -16 for the home team

-Game 6:
Boston Celtics 25 team fouls, Boston Celtics 13 free throws
Cleveland Cavaliers 16 team fouls, Cleveland Cavaliers 25 free throws
Differential: +12 for the home team

-Game 7:
Cleveland Cavaliers 28 team fouls, Cleveland Cavaliers 35 free throws
Boston Celtics 26 team fouls, Boston Celtics 34 free throws
Differential: -1 for the home team

Some interesting stats:

-The averages aren’t that bad; truth be told, I was expecting a much more uneven figure than the home team only averaging right at +5 in free throw differential.

-The home team shot 12 or more free throws than the away team on 8 different occasions; the away team, on the other hand, only shot 12 or more free throws than the home team in 2 games.

-The home team shot 19 or more free throws than the away team in 3 different games; the away team shot 19 or more free throws than the home team zero times.

-Of the 24 games, only 7 times did the away team shoot more free throws than the home team.

-In all of this, one way or another, Joey Crawford is always wrong.