Well, the deal that’s been highly anticipated finally went down — Shaq got traded from Phoenix to Cleveland for Sasha Pavlovic, Ben Wallace, a second-round pick, and some cash. The Suns were essentially dumping Shaq’s monstrous salary ($21 million) for cap relief considering Pavlovic and Wallace have expiring deals (Wallace is making like $14 million or so). Don’t blame Steve Kerr for making a bad deal, blame his owner, Robert Sarver, for wanting to cut costs. As for Cleveland’s side of the deal, you already know I thought it was the deal that they had to make. Good for them — now they can have an answer for Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol, and Andrew Bynum. This is the type of help LeBron needs. Now the question for Shaq is whether or not the Bionic Diesel can transfer Phoenix’s medical staff to Cleveland.
Now the most important question is what Shaq’s new nickname should be. Shaq nicknamed himself “The Big Cactus” when he got traded to the desert in Phoenix. That was a clever nickname and The Big Aristotle will have to get his wits in motion to come up with a good one in Cleveland. The blog King James Gospel has come up with 20 suggestions, amongst them my favorites are “The Remake on the Lake” and “The Big O’Hio.” My personal suggestion would be “The Big Cuyahoga.” If you have something better, please share it with the group and use your creative strengths to make up for the ones I don’t have.
