Miami
Reports are that Erick Dampier will be eventually agreeing to a deal with Dallas, meaning Shaquille O'Neal won't face him four times a year as a Hawk, or four times a year as a Knick, but rather only twice a year as a Mav. It's not like Shaq ever trembled in his size-21-EEE hightops, but now his potentially biggest rival at the center position is gone.
Shaq's matchups in his division remain fairly easy. There is no Yao, no Damp, not even a Duncan playing in the wrong position. Shaq matches up with Brendan Haywood of Washington, Predrag Drobnjak of Atlanta, rookie Emeka Okafor of Charlotte, and Kelvin Cato of Orlando. Not exactly a Herculean challenge for the big guy.
For the first time in three years, Shaq may get to start in the All-Star game, for two reasons: (1) there is no Yao to push ahead of him in votes, and (2) he's not on the Lakers, whose fans apparently don't vote. Jack Nicholson simply can't be bothered, apparently. Not to worry. Miami fans will turn out in droves, and though they may send a player by the nickname "Hanging Chad" instead of Shaq, they'll at least turn out and vote.
TEAM NOTES
The Washington Post's survey about the Miami Heat had the following overwhelming responses. For fans' predictions of how far the Heat will go this season with the addition of Shaq, over 80% believed they would make the playoffs but not win the title. Fans seemed also to like Shaq's movie "Blue Chips" the best, at over 64% of the vote.
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Shandel Richardson ofThe South Florida Sun-Sentinelwrites: A year after joining the Tour, which stops at AmericanAirlines Arena tonight, Boucher's popularity has risen higher than Vince Carter on a breakaway dunk.Young boys marvel at his dribbling skills. The ladies like his boyish looks. After games, the autograph lines snake around him. Why all the attention? Aside from his skills, Boucher brings something new, something different to playground basketball, or as he likes to say, "I'm young, I'm white and I got game."
Will Graves ofThe Naples Daily Newswrites: In the meantime, Vickers is focusing on ways to reach out to the local communities devastated by Hurricane Charley. Among his ideas is bringing an NBA exhibition game to Germain Arena in the fall. There currently is no exhibition game slated to be played at the arena, though the NBA has visited Southwest Florida in each of the three previous preseasons, and the Miami Heat are likely to return for a game in the fall of 2005."We're in the process of working with the NBA, maybe getting an exhibition with the NBA and having all the proceeds go to the Red Cross," said Vickers, who stressed he simply is brainstorming ways for the Flame to give back.