Shaq to miss remainder of regular season

One of the things that keeps professional sports interesting in this era of free agency and deck-stacking is the wild card that injuries represent. You can go out and buy the best players available in baseball, where there is no salary cap (if you can afford it) and the Yankees do so every year, but they aren’t always successful with that strategy, because your money can’t control injuries or sub-par performances. In the sport of basketball there is a salary, cap but somehow, there are teams that are built like all star squads such as the Lakers, and others, like the Nets, who are more akin to a junior college squad. I’m not sure how they move that money around to make that stuff happen, but apparently they can, and they do.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have been able to surround Lebron James with a pretty impressive cast of characters, and one of them is the big guy, Shaquille O’Neal. Shaq knows how to get it done deep in the playoffs, and he has the rings to prove it. His imposing inside presence was supposed to be the difference in the playoffs this year, particularly then and if the Cavs have to face Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic again. That was the plan, anyway, but it hit a bump in the road when O’Neal had surgery on an injured thumb on Monday that will keep him out of the lineup for the rest of the regular season.

Shaq expects to be back for the playoffs, according to his Twitter tweet on the topic: “Will be out for a min but when I return it is on. Win da ring for da king! Luv my team, Cavs baby!” At his advancing age, perhaps the late season rest is the best thing that could have happened for him.