It wasn’t a great week in the NBA for Shaquille O’Neal.
And before the media even had a chance to speculate, Shaq’s made it clear that he doesn’t want it to be his last week or season in the NBA.
First, appearing as old as Bill Russell if not older, O’Neal covered SI. Usually that’s an honor…but go back and check our homepage again. Then, on the court, his team dropped their Playoff series to the underdog Celtics, 4-2. A series where he didn’t have much of an impact.
So it’s not too surprising that, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Shaq’s not ready to call it quits after a failed season in Cleveland: “‘Of course,” [O’Neal] said. ‘I missed 360 games because of injury in my career, so by my calculations I still have 3.7 years left. That means I’m going to play until I’m 41. I’ve been here 17 years but I’ve missed a lot of games, so I still feel I can play this game.'”
So O’Neal wants to continue playing next season. That that begs the question: Does any team desire his services?
The other question: If missed free throws counted towards his “calculations,” how many more seasons would that add to Shaq’s total? By my math, if free throws were factored in, Shaq could play ’till he was 50. Alas, they don’t, and he won’t.
Let’s just wait and see where he lands this summer.
