By the time Shaquille O'Neal joined the Miami Heat in 2004, he was already a made man, 12 years into his NBA career, with three championship rings, and just entering the back half of it all. O'Neal was still excellent during his Heat tenure, but as the four years he spent in Miami progressed, O'Neal slowly began to regress.
O'Neal has been public about the struggles he endured in Miami, much of it having to do with Pat Riley. Nevertheless, O'Neal was vital to the Heat's championship run in 2006, with a young Dwyane Wade leading the way, and had he not been there, it could have gone the other way for the Heat.
Going from the West Coast to the East wasn't the easiest adjustment for O'Neal either, especially coming off a disappointing finish to his Los Angeles Lakers tenure. Recently, O'Neal reflected on the move from LA to Miami and noted a key factor he had to adjust to help the Heat become a winning franchise.
Shaquille O'Neal admits shedding his ego helped him help the Miami Heat win their first title
Prior to arriving in Miami, O'Neal had never taken a back seat. In Orlando, he was the first option with the Magic. With the Lakers, he was that again, and when Kobe Bryant arrived, O'Neal never took a step back. Although he and Bryant won three championships together, they had their moments of tension.
In Miami, O'Neal quickly recognized Wade was not just the future, but the present. So, O'Neal knew the one thing he had to do, and he recently opened up about it to Wade and a handful of his '06 Heat championship teammates, Alonzo Morning, Gary Payton, Udonis Haslem, Antione Walker, and Dorell Wright on an episode of The Check-in with Dwyane Wade.
“When I first came here, I had to sacrifice because I was the man everywhere I went,” O’Neal said. "...He [Wade] not there yet, but I can get him there. So when I first got here, I’m looking for him. We had a conversation. I said, ‘Listen, I know you heard a lot. This is how it’s going to be, and this your team.’ He looked at me with the baby face. I said, ‘This your team.'”
O'Neal wouldn't only sacrifice his ego, but his money, too. The Heat would eventually acquire more pieces to fit around him and Wade to help them reach the finals, which they would, thanks to O'Neal's financial sacrifice. O'Neal was also instrumental in helping Wade emerge as an NBA superstar, resembling the type of game O'Neal was familiar with in Bryant.
In another world, had O'Neal not recognized what he needed to do with the Heat, perhaps there would be no '06 championship. Perhaps, his relationship with Wade would have resembled the tumultuous times he had with Bryan in Los Angeles. Thankfully, Heat fans never witnessed the latter. Instead, they got to witness a great era of Heat basketball before their next great one, when LeBron James arrived in South Beach several years later.
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