While on the recent subject of Shaquille O’Neal quotes, it's time for me to pull out a Shaq quote that I've been saving for months. It may not top the Kobe quote, but it's just unbelievable. On 2/6/2005, Shaq said: "I don't worry, because I've got the best backup in the world in Mike Doleac."
First off, let me give some background on Doleac. Doleac played for Utah in college. He’s an uncoordinated 7-foot white guy, who powered Utah to the 1998 NCAA Championship game with some help from PG Andre Miller. (For all the Bill Simmons fans out there, this was the year AFTER Keith Van Horn left, when Utah was supposed to be terrible. Bill Simmons calls this the “Ewing Theory” – a team performing better without its superstar.)
Doleac is the beneficiary of every NBA GM’s first rule: always draft people who are 7 feet tall, no matter whether they know how to dribble, pass, or walk and chew gum at the same time.
Doleac has been on 5 teams in 7 years, average 5.3 ppg and 3.5 rebounds per game (rpg). Doleac was even on the Cavs once, as the Cavs chose to trade a 1st round pick for him and then refuse to sign him all within a year. It's a new kind of strategy that focuses on roster-turnover.
This season, Doleac averaged 4 ppg & 3.2 rpg. I guess Shaq forgot that he also has Alonzo Mourning on his team this year! I hate how Shaq always discriminates against people who have had kidney transplants. Seriously.
So I did some research, courtesy of http://www.basketballreference.com/, to come to my own conclusions about Shaq's greatest backup. I just don't want to give any accolades to Doleac!
Assuming I can't just pick Mourning as his best backup, I have to look at his time on the Lakers. Shaq really didn’t have any backups for a couple of years, unless I count Samaki Walker. But Walker wasn’t really playing center. The Lakers did use John Salley one year though, who delivered with a 1.6ppg & 1.4 rpg.
Who were Shaq’s backups on Orlando? Amazingly, in 1992 his backup for half the season was Brian Williams, who later changed his name to Bison Dele, who later changed his name to Optimus Prime, who later went to Tahiti and is now presumed dead. I wish I was making all this up.
But, my vote for Shaq’s best backup, has to be a player-coach on the Orlando Magic, Henry “Tree” Rollins. Tree Rollins averaged 1.7 ppg and 2.1 rpg while ASSISTANT COACHING the 1993-1994 Magic to their first-ever NBA playoff appearance.
It may be rude, I may hurt Doleac's feelings, but I refuse to let Doleac bask in the glory of being "the best backup in the world."
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4 comments:
I like Michael Doleac. He was on the Knicks for 1 1/2 seasons from 2002 until the winter of 2004 when Isiah decided that white players didn't belong on his teams. Doleac was a hard-nosed, nasty player who used sharp elbows and a spot-on 12' jumper to get some PT as Kurt Thomas' backup.
For the record, I nominate Sean Rooks and Travis Knight as Shaq's greatest backups. Those two have to go down as the greatest Shaq-ups in NBA history. Can you imagine? Travis Knight has more championships than Barkley, Malone, Stockton, Wilkins and Ewing put together?
PS -- I can't tell you how much I hate Simmons for coining the term "Ewing Theory" since it's so damn wrong when applied to my favorite pro athlete. Pat Ewing's teams were NEVER better when he was on the bench. Simmons' unscientific theory is based on Patrick missing the final few games in the Knicks incredible run to the NBA Finals as a #8 seed in 1999. Did the Knicks win the title? Nope. Did they lose it because Ewing was in street clothes and LJ, Kurt Thomas, Herb Williams and Chris Dudley were forced to defend Tim Duncan and David Robinson? You betcha!
I love Simmons but he's so anti-Ewing it's silly. Ewing was THE ONLY reason the Knicks even won 30 games a year from 1986-2000 when he left. No joke. Look it up. Not another NBA Hall of Famer on the roster and only 3 TOTAL all-stars in a 15 year career in NYC (Starks/Oakley in 1994, Houston in 2000). Ewing Theory my ass.
MJ is completely right about the Ewing theory. They did normally stink up the joint whenever he was out. Spreewell in his prime also was a big reason they were able to win so many games.
I'd love it if the "Ewing Theory" were renamed something more apropos like the "Velarde Theory" for former Yankee infielder Randy Velarde. He was on the Yanks from 1987-1995 when they made 1 playoff appearance and lost to the Mariners in 1995. From 1996-2000 he was elsewhere as the Yanks were winning rings. He came back for the 2nd half of 2001 and we lost to the Diamondbacks in the World Series.
I know that violates the spirit of Simmons' rule that the player has to be of a certain stature but I've always liked the idea of calling it the Velarde Rule since that guy was ill-tempered and crappy but thought of himself as a vital cog in the Yankee machine of 1994. He's since been disgraced as part of the BALCO scandal. Jeez, Randy, all those years of 'roids and all you could do was hit 100 career homers? Barry Bonds hit 73 in a year!
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