Larry Brown Sports

Shaq became the ninth player in Los Angeles Lakers history to have his jersey retired.

Signed by the team in the summer of 1996, Shaq spent eight seasons with the purple and gold, winning three NBA championships while reaching four finals. Shaq won his fourth championship after being traded to the Miami Heat, but it was with the Lakers that he had his best years.

His jersey retirement ceremony, which took place during halftime of Tuesday’s Dallas Mavericks-Los Angeles Lakers game, was excellent. A video montage showed many clips of Shaq’s entertaining personality and funny moments. After that, there was an extremely touching and personal recorded video message from Kobe Bryant. Kobe made it clear in his speech that there no longer is any animosity between him and Shaq.

Phil Jackson, who coached Shaq for five seasons, spoke next. He regaled the crowd with funny stories about the bubbly big man. Jeanie Buss then took the microphone and honored Shaq on behalf of the team and the fans. She said the two words that best describe Shaq are “Laker” and “champion.”

Shaq’s jersey was then unveiled next to eight other former Laker greats — or nine if you include the jersey for announcer Chick Hearn. Shaq proceeded to speak, giving recognition to Kobe for helping him form the best 1-2 punch in history, Jackson for coaching the team to championships, Jerry West for signing him, late Lakers owner Jerry Buss, and many of the team’s prominent fans, including Jack Nicholson.

One of the messages Shaq stressed is that his once contentious relationship with Bryant has been mended.

“Kobe, we had a million great times and a thousand bad times,” said Shaq. “But as a doctor, I know that a million outweighs a thousand, and the positive always outweighs the negative.

“You are my teammate and my brother, and I’m proud to call you both.”

Several notable athletes sent their congratulations to Shaq over Twitter:

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Reggie Miller and Shaquille O’Neal were both NBA superstars in their day, but Miller gave us a reminder on Thursday that superstars can come in all different shapes and sizes.

What do you get when you put a three-point specialist in the suit coat of one of the most dominant post players of all time? You get a Reggie Miller that looks like he’s a 6-year-old playing dress-up with his old man’s clothes.

“Getting ready to shoot more Open Court shows, had to put on Shaq’s suit jacket, it makes me look like I’m 8!!!!” Miller tweeted along with the hilarious photo.

Reggie Miller may be 6-foot-7, but Shaq can make any grown man not named Yao Ming look small.

Shaquille O’Neal joined in on some of the Super Bowl festivities in New Orleans over the weekend, but from the sound of it he didn’t feel the need to hit any strip clubs or stroll down Bourbon Street looking for women. Instead, Shaq reportedly had his sights set on “Entertainment Tonight” co-host Rocsi Diaz.

According to the New York Post’s Page Six, Shaq attended a private party at the Hookah Lounge on Saturday night where he had his “complete attention” on Diaz.

“Shaq and Rocsi were holding hands at this private party and at a private table,” a source reportedly told Page Six. “They looked like an odd couple, but they seemed really into each other.”

They may have looked odd to outsiders, but it sounds like Diaz is just Shaq’s type. Like his former fiancee Nicole “Hoopz” Alexander, Diaz is 5 feet 2. She is a former host of BET’s “106 & Park” and was in New Orleans reporting for “Entertainment Tonight.” Diaz’s rep confirmed to Page Six that she was at the party and said Diaz and Shaq are very good friends. If she’s into guys who like taking their shirts off, it could be a match made in heaven.

Louisville lost its second straight tough game in a row on Tuesday night, this time at the hands of Villanova. Over the weekend, the Cardinals lost a tough home game to No. 6-ranked Syracuse. However, the Wildcats are a team they should have beaten. Had they been more successful from the charity stripe, Rick Pitino’s team may have come away with a win.

Louisville hit only 12 of its 24 free throw attempts, and Pitino was livid about it after the game. So livid, in fact, that he decided to take it out on Shaquille O’Neal and Dwight Howard.

“It was really a simple answer to why we lost,” Pitino told reporters, via the Courier-Journal. “Basically we were Dwight Howard or Shaquille O’Neal. We came down we had a six-point lead and it could have been eight. Could have kept coming down and extending it but our free throws were a turnover. Very simple answer for why we lost. Our foul shooting was despicable.”

The final score was 73-64, so obviously the free throws the Cardinals missed were crucial. Louisville missed the front end of a one-and-one on two occasions down the stretch, which made it incredibly difficult to close out a game that they led in the second half. At one point, forward Chane Behanan missed five free throws in a row.

The Cardinals has lost two games since being ranked No. 1 in the nation, and they have not gotten off to a good start in Big East play. If they don’t solve their free-throw shooting woes going forward, they’ll be in danger of falling even further.

Chest bump to The Dagger

Shaquille O’Neal was able to dominate every center whom he faced during his career except for one: Hakeem Olajuwon.

The Dream turned 50 on Monday, so TNT’s “Inside the NBA” ran a tribute to the Houston Rockets legend. Following the piece, which showed Olajuwon mentoring and training select big men, Shaq was full of praise for the man who outplayed him.

“Hakeem Olajuwon was the only guy that I couldn’t intimidate,” Shaq said of Hakeem.

Shaq then talked about his intimidation tactics and how they didn’t work on Olajuwon.

“When I would say something, if you say something back, I had you. If I [elbow] you and you complain, I had you,” Shaq explained.

“Right before the (1995) finals — we had beaten Houston twice that year in Houston and in Orlando — Hakeem was good, but I didn’t know that he was that good. I was in my own zone and wasn’t really worried about anybody else. First play of the game, I gave him the patented Shaq ‘bow, jump hook, 2-0. He just smiled at me. And then he came down and gave me [a move], shot a jumper and said, ‘right back at you, Big Fella.’

“So I came down and did it again, but I could never get to him. I could never intimidate him.”

Shaq then went on to explain how the variety in Olajuwon’s moves made him so difficult to guard.

“He’s a guy that you couldn’t study. Like Alonzo (Mourning) and Patrick (Ewing) and all the Georgetown guys, they would fake left and go hard right with that dumb, running jump hook. Hakeem Olajuwon, he would go left, he would go right, so you really couldn’t study for him. The best defense was put your hands up and hope he misses.”

Olajuwon won two titles during his career, and they came in back-to-back seasons when Michael Jordan took time off to purse a professional baseball career. He was toward the prime of his career when he squared off against Shaq in the ’95 finals. Shaq was still young and much thinner back then. Though Shaq would lose in those finals, he went on to win four titles.

Shaq didn’t have many players who could stop him during his career. Hakeem was probably the only big man ever who got the best of him. Now that Shaq’s retired, it’s nice to see him recognize that.

We’ll also leave you with this classic Taco Bell commercial between Shaq and Hakeem that played on the rivalry between them:

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Ladies and gentlemen, it looks like we may have to set up a fight date for Shaq and Jason Whitlock.

Matters between the two got started on NBA opening night Tuesday when Whitlock, a columnist for FOXSports.com, said Shaq was out of shape. The former All-NBA center and current TNT NBA analyst responded by challenging Whitlock to a fight.

Not only did Whitlock not back down, but he wrote a column in response touting his credentials as a street fighter and former football player.

Shaq wasn’t about to back down from his initial challenge, and Whitlock isn’t tapping out, either.

Shaq said on “Inside the NBA” Thursday that he wanted to fight Whitlock next week. The Big Fella agreed to fight in six months after Whitlock said he wanted that much time to train for the bout.

Name the date Shaq! Any time, any place! (I need at least 6 months to train.)

— Jason Whitlock (@WhitlockJason) November 2, 2012

Things are so far along that Shaq received an offer from former heavyweight champion boxer Lennox Lewis to train, much to Whitlock’s disappointment:

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Former NBA All-Star center and current TNT NBA analyst Shaquille O’Neal responded to a tweet about his weight from FOXSports.com’s Jason Whitlock by challenging the writer to a fight.

Whitlock sent the following tweet to “Inside the NBA” before Tuesday’s season-opening game between the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat began:

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