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Twenty two years ago the best center in the game was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He was 38 years old and in the twilight of his career. Due to age and the emergence of his young teammates, Kareem began to relax a bit as a player. Because he had great teammates such as Magic Johnson and James Worthy by his side, it wasn't necessary for him to dominate the way he had in the past. Despite the fact that he had played so wonderfully throughout his career to that point, his critics started to emerge, accusing Kareem of being "washed up". Kareem ignored most of the critics, his thinking being: How can you call a guy getting 22 and 8 washed up? But he couldn't ignore the critics any longer after game 1 of the 1985 NBA Finals. In that game, Kareem got completely outplayed by his younger and more agile opponent, Robert Parish. The following morning, Kareem was forced to watch video of his horrendous game 1 performance. Pat Riley, the ultimate motivator told Kareem that the team couldn't beat the Celtics without a big time series from him. After watching video of his poor game 1 performance, Kareem personally went up to each and every one of his teammates and apologized, vowing never to play like that again. From that moment on, Kareem was a different player. To the surprise of his critics, he started to dominate games the way he had throughout his career. In the Lakers four victories from that series, Kareem averaged 30.2 points, 11.3 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 2.0 blocks.
Fast forward to 2006, where Shaquille O'neal, the best center in the game for the last ten seasons, was starting to hear a lot of the criticism that Kareem heard back in 1985.
Shaq was able to ignore the critics when the Heat were winning. However, things started to change a bit this season. With Wade looking like he'd miss the rest of the year with a shoulder injury, the Heat's chances to make the playoffs fell directly on Shaq. And with Shaq still recovering from an injury of his own, most critics were quick to say that there was no way Shaq could carry the Heat into the playoffs. Shaq hadn't had a dominant game in over a year and looked slower than ever. Surprisingly, with no Wade and doubters everywhere, Shaq has returned to playing at a level we haven't seen from him in over a year. In the eight games the Heat have played without Dwyane Wade, they have won six games and climbed up to the sixth seed in the east (only two games back of the division leading Wizards). Now everyone is talking about the amazing Shaq revival.
Just like Kareem in 1985, Shaq is proving that you should never doubt a great big man...especially one that is coached by Pat Riley. Don't tell me that Riley didn't sit Shaq down (just like he did with Kareem down 22 years earlier) and show him video of how much his game had declined. Riley is the ultimate motivator, and I have little doubt in my mind that he's the one that's convinced Shaq to go back to releasing his fury on the entire league.
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