Editor's Note: This column has been updated from Thursday's original version.He's accustomed to the NBA's sunniest and most extravagant addresses, from Disney World to Hollywood to South Beach to the Arizona desert. Ontario Street in downtown Cleveland? Put it this way: Shaquille O'Neal will have to buy a thick winter coat, assume a less gaudy nickname (The Big Smokestack?) and watch courtside celebrities such as Jack Nicholson and Ludacris suddenly morph into Drew Carey.
But there's nothing ludicrous about this new development in his fascinating journey through basketball and life. Shaq is intelligent enough to realize, at 37, that even one season with the Cavaliers could have a profound impact on his legacy -- and that of LeBron James. If Shaq wins his fifth NBA championship in a town that hasn't won a title in a major sport since 1964, and he succeeds in keeping an ambitious native son in his native northeast Ohio, his work will be done.




