Outline · [ Standard ] · Linear+ Shaq and Kobe are Co-MVPs of ASG

[2000 rushing yards]

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/story/11382730

PHOENIX – Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant were named co-MVP of the All-Star Game. No, that wasn't rigged at all.


I know the All-Star Game is just a tad above professional wrestling but who's the commissioner of the NBA now, Mickey Rourke?

This co-MVP presentation brought to you by Kevin Donaghy.

Are you serious? The Big Cactus and Kobe Bryant? Co-MVPs? Even the players themselves were utterly dumbfounded by the P.T. Barnum nature of it all. Bryant looked like he wanted to puke into Craig Sager's red alligator shoes.

"We are not going to go back to the room and watch Steel Magnolias or something like that," said Bryant, when asked if playing with O'Neal felt like old times, "you know what I'm saying, crying, all that stuff."

Actually, if there was ever a single movie that symbolized the two men's relationship it's not Steel Magnolias. It's Fight Club.

Now, if O'Neal broke out with a rendition of "Kobe How's My ###### Taste" that would be realistic.

But that co-MVP award? As O'Neal might say, it was Sham-tastic.

Next year's All-Star co-MVPs: Barack Obama and John McCain.

Hell, if the NBA can pull All-Star MVPs out of its ######, why can't I?

First, a rigged dunk contest. Now, rigged All-Star MVPs. What's next? Fans voting for the two teams that should play in the Finals?

If I was O'Neal, I'd be mortified at being gifted an MVP like that. There was a time when O'Neal would have taken that MVP trophy and shoved it up someone's butt.

But not anymore. As great as O'Neal was he's a shell of himself now. I guess O'Neal knows he's on his way out and he'll take what he can get.

In many ways, O'Neal is still the lovable character he's always been. Before the West rosters were introduced O'Neal danced with the creepy JabbaWockeeZ in what was maybe the best moment of an All-Star night full of great ones (until the co-MVP was announced).

O'Neal dancing on stage was funny. It was entertaining. It was also sad because that's all O'Neal can do now: play the role of the funny man, the clown. Off the court, he's as sharp as any comedian, and a credit to the sport.

On it, he's done. O'Neal's finished. It takes an All-Star Game like this one, with all those fresh, young big man legs running around, to really demonstrate that O'Neal has nothing left except his sense of humor, a bevy of memories and a hand full of rings. He's no longer The Big Diesel. He's The Big Wheez-el.

There was a time when I thought O'Neal coming to Phoenix would lead to a title run. A bunch of us were dead wrong. O'Neal coming to the Suns was like Brett Favre going to New York. It was a disaster. That's the word for it: disaster.

O'Neal's arrival here might lead to the firing of his head coach and the trade of Amare Stoudemire. The Suns are in such turmoil they attempted to trade Kurt Warner until they remembered he played for the Cardinals.

More importantly, this was probably O'Neal's last All-Star Game. Hope you TiVo'd it. He'll be dearly missed because he brought charisma and talent to a league that sorely needed it. I also believe O'Neal would've dominated any big man in history with the exception of Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

In some ways, he changed the way big men presented themselves to the public. They were no longer scowling monstrosities who intimidated off the court as well as on it. They could laugh and crack jokes. They could entertain with more than a huge dunk.

"When I was growing up and guys said to me, 'Big guys can't sell,'" O'Neal remembered, "I would actually go study it. I wanted to have Jordan's dominance and Magic's smile, mixed with my silliness. That was my formula to creating Shaq."

If the basketball gods are righteous and merciful, they'll allow O'Neal's career to end gracefully and with dignity because that's what he deserves. He brought plenty of both to the NBA in his own Shaq-tastic way.

"... the game will be missed without the big (fella)," said LeBron James. "He brings showmanship, sportsmanship, laughter. He brings everything to the game of basketball. The game will miss him."

It will, dearly.

Who knows, years from now, after O'Neal's retired and is running a successful Wall Street firm, the NBA will yet again make him the All-Star MVP.

After Sunday night's fiasco, anything is possible.

[scott0326]

I think it was rigged, if anything Kobe and CP3 should of been Co-MVPs, CP3 nearly had triple double.

[ffman]

I think it was a nice homage to one of the best duos in sports, although in "technical" terms Kobe deserved the sole MVP award.

I think Shaq liked the whole idea but Kobe didn't seem too enthused.