Rick Noland

The Gazette

INDEPENDENCE – Shaquille O’Neal wasted no time making his 7-foot-1, 325-pound presence felt.

Clad in a black suit, pink dress shirt and bright pink tie, the 37-year-old center was both serious and funny in his first press conference since being acquired by the Cavaliers.

“My motto is very simple: Win a ring for ‘The King,’” O’Neal said Thurs-day afternoon in front of more than 200 onlookers at Cleveland Clinic Courts.

The Cavaliers, who gave up just Ben Wallace, Sasha Pavlovic, a second-round pick and cash for the 15-time All-Star, are hoping O’Neal’s low-post presence can combine with league MVP LeBron James to push a 66-win team in the regular season over the top.

O’Neal — in preparation for Cleveland’s harsh win-ters, he was given a large pair of yellow boots and a shovel by owner Dan Gil-bert — certainly did not shy away from championship talk.

“I’m not here to demand 40 or 50 shots, but I’d like 30,” O’Neal quipped before turning serious for a mo-ment. “I’m just here to do my part and help a damn good team get over the hump.

“I’m not going to do it by myself,” he added. “LeBron’s not going to do it by himself. It’s going to take a team, a city and an organ-izational effort to get it done. We definitely have all the pieces.”

O’Neal, who won three championships with the Los Angeles Lakers while teamed with Kobe Bryant and another with Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat, repeatedly complimented the 24-year-old James, call-ing him a “freakish athlete” and “one of the greatest players” in league history.

“I know what he can do and he knows what I can do,” O’Neal said. “When we start taking care of busi-ness, it’s going to be a per-fect match.

“I can adapt to any situa-tion,” he added. “We all know it’s LeBron’s team. I’m not going to come in here and try to change that.”

A noted fan of law enforcement, O’Neal is eager to go into what many Cleveland fans are already calling “Witness Protection.”

“I’m now in the security business,” he said. “My job is to protect ‘The King.’”

On this day, it was O’Neal who was treated like royalty.

Several local and na-tional radio and television networks aired his press conference live, which began with him walking through two lines of wildly applauding children from a Cleveland St. Martin de Porres day camp.

At least 20 cameras were videotaping the event, which featured such a large turnout that shuttle buses had to transport media members from a bowling lanes parking lot located about a mile from the team’s practice facility.

Following brief remarks by Gilbert, general manager Danny Ferry and head coach Mike Brown, O’Neal immediately drew huge laughs when he held up a picture of a bent-over Ferry, who was playing for San Antonio at the time. Right behind him was O’Neal, then with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Seconds after that, O’Neal smiled and said, “I appreciate the opportunity, with three years left in my career, to play with a damn good team.”

He emphasized “three” – a reference to the fact he will be entering the final year of his contract, which will pay him $20 million in 2009-10 – and returned to that theme several times.

“I would love an extension,” O’Neal said. “Who wouldn’t? But I’m here to take care of busi-ness.”

Although it’s highly unlikely the Cavaliers will offer him an extension prior to pursuing other free agents in the summer of 2010 – inking the veteran before that would eat up most of the team’s salary cap space – O’Neal drew more laughs when he said, “If they offer me $35 million a year, I’ll take it right now.”

One of two players in NBA history (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) with at least 27,000 career points, 12,000 rebounds and 2,500 blocks, O’Neal has been around long enough to know the Cavaliers will have to re-sign him if they win a championship in 2010.

He also knows it would be virtually impossible for James, who will likely be an unrestricted free agent that summer, to leave Cleveland a month or two after win-ning a title.

“In a perfect world, if we win and take care of busi-ness, he has no choice but to stay,” O’Neal said.
Tip-ins

Well-known for his interest in communicating with fans on Twitter, O’Neal said an online friend sug-gested the nickname “The Big Freeze” now that he’s in Cleveland.

Asked about a possible NBA Finals matchup with Bryant and the Lakers – both players have four championship rings – O’Neal gave a lengthy, politically correct answer before finally saying, “That would be a helluva matchup.”

With his wife Shaunie in attendance – they have three boys, Myles, Shareef and Shaqir, and three girls, Taahirah, Amirah and Me’Arah – O’Neal joked, “My sons actually love LeBron more than they love me.”

O’Neal said he’s exchanged e-mails with James and would probably come up to visit the Cleveland superstar some-time this summer.

When talking about Cleveland’s loss to Orlando in the Eastern Conference finals, in which Magic center Dwight Howard dominated inside, O’Neal twice turned to Brown and, with a smile, said, “We will not have to double anybody.”

O’Neal vowed he would be “in excellent shape” for training camp and said he has “a lot left.”

To complete the O’Neal trade, Phoenix will get Cleveland’s second-round pick in the 2010 draft, but the Cava-liers will retain the selection should it end up being in the top 40 overall, which is ex-tremely doubtful.

Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rickn@ohio.net.