Shaq arrives, and Suns will never be the same

PHOENIX -- The Diesel cometh, once more.

As always, you could almost feel the ground tremble as Shaquille O’Neal changed teams Wednesday, becoming a Phoenix Sun, however improbable that was.

Not that it matched O’Neal’s reception in Orlando in 1992 when he got off the plane wearing Mickey Mouse ears, or Los Angeles in 1996 when Lakers general manager Jerry West compared signing him to the birth of his children, or Miami in 2004 when Shaq squirted the crowd at a rally with a water gun.

Here, it was more like stunned silence.

As the story broke Tuesday, the Arizona Republic website put up two features side by side.

Asked blogger Sportsboy: “A joke right?”

Replied beat writer Paul Coro: “No joke.”

Then came posts from readers:

RealFan08: “ . . . Don’t do it, this sounds horrible.”

SunDevilDanielle: “Terrible idea. No one here wants Shaq. It will mess up the whole dynamic.”

Jfluffy13: “Please no.”

Sorry. H-e-r-e’s Shaq!

“The question mark as Steve [Kerr, Suns’ GM} said, does he have any gas left in the tank?” said Coach Mike D’Antoni at a news conference before Wednesday’s game.

“You guys [press] have debated it for 24 hours and you’ve come up with ‘No.’ And I think you’re wrong. . . . I do find it kind of funny. First of all, we can’t win without a big man. Then we can’t win with a big man.”

Of course, this big man is 35 with the mileage to prove it, which isn’t ideal for a team that spreads the floor and plays fast, or used to.

Here’s the story as the Suns put it out, officially and unofficially:

All their top people agreed.

Everyone was fed up with Shawn Marion’s whining and his recent inclination to take nights off.

They all think this gives them a better chance against all the big Western Conference teams in the playoffs.

Here are other possibilities:

The Suns flipped out when the hated Lakers got Pau Gasol.

They jumped at the deal because they heard Dallas owner Mark Cuban was also interested.

Suns owner Robert Sarver isn’t just the one who learned that O’Neal was available from Miami owner Micky Arison, Sarver is the one whose enthusiasm rammed it through.

It wasn’t a leap of faith for Kerr, the new GM whose San Antonio background left him skeptical of the Suns’ running, gunning style.

Wednesday night Kerr said the Suns had “a puncher’s chance” to win in the playoffs, “maybe if things went right, if we got the right matchup.”

However, it was a leap of faith for D’Antoni, who put in the NBA’s most entertaining offense, who had to defend it for as long as he ran it against the conventional wisdom that they couldn’t win a title.

“I’d disagree a little,” said D’Antoni of Kerr’s characterization of the Suns as longshots. “I thought we would win anyway.”

In fact, none of D’Antoni’s Suns teams was ever defeated when it was at full strength:

In 2005, the Suns fell to San Antonio in the West finals after losing the first two at home with Joe Johnson out.

In 2006, they made the West finals again without Amare Stoudemire but fell to Dallas.

Then came last spring’s nightmare when they tied their second-round series with the Spurs, winning Game 4 in San Antonio, only to see Stoudemire and Boris Diaw suspended for Game 5 for leaving the bench during a fight.

Nor had they gone south this season even with all the mewing from Marion and Stoudemire, leading the West, having won eight of their last 10 games.

For the record, D’Antoni says he’s wholeheartedly for this, even if it means changing their style on the fly.

“You’re from L.A.,” D’Antoni said to a Los Angeles writer. “Didn’t they [Lakers] have Showtime and they had a 40-year-old center running down behind everybody?”

That was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who played until he was 42, but the Suns better not hold their breath until they become Showtime II.

The Lakers’ nucleus, which included Hall of Famers Magic Johnson and James Worthy, grew up around Abdul-Jabbar as opposed to having him dropped in their midst, making it natural for them to take over as the years went by and Kareem slowed down.

Most of all, even at 42, Abdul-Jabbar could do one thing as well as anyone in the game -- get a good shot and make it in crunch time.

O’Neal can still get 15 points and eight rebounds. He will improve the Suns’ defense just by standing in the lane. That’s all useful but not the same thing.

He won’t talk until his news conference today, but he was introduced at Wednesday’s game against New Orleans and everyone went wild.

Showman that he is, he pointed to his ring finger and everyone went wilder.

One thing is for sure, they’re going to have a lot of fun for a week or so.

By then, O’Neal is expected to start playing. They’ll have to wait to see how that goes.

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Comparison

Season averages of the players in the Miami- Phoenix trade (through Wednesday):

*--* SHAQUILLE O’NEAL (HEAT) GP MIN FG% REB PTS 32 28.6 581 7.8 14.2 *--*

*--* SHAWN MARION (SUNS) GP MIN FG% REB PTS 47 36.4 526 9.9 15.8 *--*

*--* MARCUS BANKS (SUNS) GP MIN FG% REB PTS 24 12.8 404 0.8 5.2 *--*