Shaquille O Neal

Finally, a rivalry indeed renewed. The NBA Finals sputtered out a week ago, failing to live up to past Lakers and Celtics lore. Leave it to Shaquille O'Neal, part-time center, part-time rapper, to pick up the pieces -- or the microphone -- and poke and prod at the embers of a feud with Kobe Bryant that had all but died out some time ago. "You know how I be. Last week Kobe couldn't do without me," O'Neal freestyle-rapped Sunday at a New York nightclub in footage shown on TMZ.com. The reference?

He's proclaimed himself the Diesel, the Big Aristotle and Shaq Fu, among other nicknames. Now Shaquille O'Neal has a few more monikers for himself in advance of his home run derby showdown with St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols for the former Laker's ABC reality show. When he was little, the 7-foot-1, 325-pound O'Neal said, he was known as Shaqqie Robinson. And when he pitched? The Big Black Unit. O'Neal told the Associated Press he was once a T-ball All-Star and a high school first baseman with the "world's biggest strike zone."

Apparently, the Maricopa County Police Department can do without Shaq. Sheriff Joe Arpaio wants Shaquille O'Neal to return his special deputy sheriff's badges to the Arizona county because of profanity and a racially derogatory word the Phoenix Suns center used while mocking Kobe Bryant in a freestyle rap video that surfaced Monday on the Internet. "I do believe in free speech, but I don't believe that in law enforcement to use this type of language is proper," Arpaio said.

Shaquille O'Neal's legendary NBA career is flawed by one statistic: free throws. He has a .528 average, meaning he misses a lot of them. "There are two classes of male," O'Neal said the other day. "The great athlete and the guy who sits on the couch and thinks it's easy and saying, for example, when I miss a free throw, 'I know I could do that.' " From that thought was born ABC's "Shaq Vs.," the latest in a string of sports-star reality shows. Tonight's premiere has the Cleveland Cavaliers center turning to football.

Shaquille O'Neal is shooting baskets in his underwear. That it also happens to be 3:40 a.m. and in downtown Los Angeles makes this either stranger or more acceptable. White briefs, white T-shirt. They stand out in contrast to the black rubber thongs--Reebok, of course--the black pavement, the black skin and the black sky.

And now, His Shaqnificence hereby issues the following decrees: 1) If you're going to use his nickname, please use the official Shaq-approved moniker, which is, Shaquille (the Deal) O'Neal. Not "the Real Deal." That one belongs to heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, fair and square. Not "Shaq Daddy," the nickname coined by his teammates. Not "Love Shaq," favored by some Louisiana State students. And not Shaquille (I'm For Real) O'Neal, the choice of O'Neal's father.

Adorned in full rap and gown, a Staples Center-size member of the Class of 2000 sent his classmates into the world Friday with this solemn wisdom: "From now on, LSU stands for 'Love Shaq University,' " Shaquille O'Neal announced to several thousand students and parents at Louisiana State University's Maravich Assembly Center. "Can . . . you . . . dig . . . it? Can . . . you . . . dig . . . it?"

In an effort to bolster sales, Taco Bell Corp. is running full-page ads in several national newspapers this week that seek to capitalize on the rivalry between basketball stars Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O'Neal. The company's name did not appear in the first ad, which ran Monday, apparently in an effort to build up interest in commercial sequels scheduled to run soon.

The truth? He can't handle the truth. Kobe Bryant wouldn't accept a version of events that differs from his if a shaft of light illuminated his Newport Beach neighborhood and angels presented it to him on a DVD with a heavenly choir singing in the background. But since he brought it up ...

Shaquille O'Neal should be cheered today. Cheered loud and long, because for all the headaches and missed free throws along the way he ultimately made the Lakers winners, because things haven't been quite the same since he left and because, not-so-deep inside, he really needs to hear the approval of everyone except a certain resident of Newport Beach.

at Cleveland 105, Memphis 89: LeBron James tied a career high with 15 assists and Shaquille O'Neal had 13 points and 13 rebounds as the Cavaliers beat the Grizzlies, who were playing their fourth game in five nights. Cleveland has won nine in a row. at Oklahoma City 106, Atlanta 99: Kevin Durant had 33 points and 11 rebounds, and became the first player since Allen Iverson nine seasons ago to score at least 25 points in 22 consecutive games. Detroit 97, at New Jersey 93: Tayshaun Prince's tiebreaking dunk on an inbounds play with 45.6 seconds left helped the Pistons end a five-game skid.

Welcome back, Suns! Where have you been? Oh, you junked your damn-the-torpedoes offense that no one could guard to play half-court basketball with 35-year-old Shaquille O'Neal? Gee, whose bright idea was that? Oh, yours? If you want to know what a "paradigm shift" is, the Phoenix Suns, once again the NBA's Fun Bunch, just went through two of them. For two seasons, everything changed on the level of Vince Vaughn in "Wedding Crashers," who announces after receiving advances from several members of the Cleary family one harrowing night: "I'm gonna go see Dr. Finklestein and I'm gonna tell him we have a whole new bag of issues.

Reality 1, Aura 0. Everywhere else, no matter what happens, the sun comes up the next morning, but not in Cleveland, where the skies wept after the hated Celtics messed up Shaquille O'Neal and LeBron James' debut. You remember that preseason consensus that James wasn't going anywhere? Looks like it's time for a new consensus. This just in: NBA sources say James narrows list of teams he'll consider as a free agent if the Cavaliers tank to 15! Actually, I made that up to get a jump on the 12 ESPN pundits.

In between hosting his reality show and entertaining his 2.4 million followers on Twitter, Shaquille O'Neal apparently had little spare time during the off-season to learn the playbook of his new team, the Cleveland Cavaliers. Last week, O'Neal admitted he was behind on his studies. "It is vital that I start to memorize the plays," O'Neal said. "I've been used to a certain system for 17 years, so I have to work on that. I still have a few days before we start." Start to memorize plays?

Totally Random: In Thursday's Sports section, Totally Random's trivia answer said three former Lakers are on the NBA's top 10 all-time scoring list: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain and Shaquille O'Neal. There are four: Karl Malone has 36,928 points, putting him in the No. 2 spot behind Abdul-Jabbar.

Shaquille O'Neal's legendary NBA career is flawed by one statistic: free throws. He has a .528 average, meaning he misses a lot of them. "There are two classes of male," O'Neal said the other day. "The great athlete and the guy who sits on the couch and thinks it's easy and saying, for example, when I miss a free throw, 'I know I could do that.' " From that thought was born ABC's "Shaq Vs.," the latest in a string of sports-star reality shows. Tonight's premiere has the Cleveland Cavaliers center turning to football.

He's proclaimed himself the Diesel, the Big Aristotle and Shaq Fu, among other nicknames. Now Shaquille O'Neal has a few more monikers for himself in advance of his home run derby showdown with St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols for the former Laker's ABC reality show. When he was little, the 7-foot-1, 325-pound O'Neal said, he was known as Shaqqie Robinson. And when he pitched? The Big Black Unit. O'Neal told the Associated Press he was once a T-ball All-Star and a high school first baseman with the "world's biggest strike zone."

Happy 50th birthday to Magic Johnson . . . . Eighteen years ago, when Johnson made his bombshell announcement that he was HIV positive, few expected the Lakers star would see his 33rd birthday, much less his 50th. . . . "His impact on increasing awareness that you can live with the disease has been phenomenal," says Cynthia Davis , director of HIV education and outreach at Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science. "Even today, 30 years into the epidemic, there are people who aren't educated and feel that it's a death sentence."

at Houston 93, Cleveland 74: The Rockets held LeBron James without an assist for the first time in his career and limited the Cavaliers to their lowest point total of the season. Cleveland forward Ben Wallace left the game because of a broken right leg. at Lakers 132, Phoenix 106: The Lakers scored 70 points in the first half. Kobe Bryant had 22 points and eight rebounds; Shaquille O'Neal had 12 points and seven rebounds for the Suns.

All-Star selections used to come so easily to Shaquille O'Neal that he wasn't even sure what the process was for picking reserves. The head coaches in each conference vote for them, and O'Neal wants the ones in the Western Conference to consider him. "Hopefully I get voted in, but I'm not going to do any campaigns," O'Neal said. "I'm not going to put on a cowboy hat and I'm not going to do none of that." The Phoenix center's play on the court might be good enough. Feeling healthy again, O'Neal is enjoying one of his best stretches in years.