Also, Van Gundy has enough talent down there that he should have been able to keep the Heat in the midst of the Eastern Conference elite. Instead, a team with Dwyane Wade, Walker, Payton, Williams and Alonzo Mourning is about on par with a Lakers club that features Bryant, Lamar Odom, Smush Parker, Brian Cook and Chris Mihm.

Still, here it is in mid-December and Van Gundy finds himself penalized because his most dominant player missed 18 of the club’s first 21 games. It hardly seems fair to judge him on that.

That’s why you can blame Riley. You can blame the dysfunctional prima donnas on the roster. You can blame Van Gundy. But it appears Shaq is the silent leader of this bloodless coup.

What Shaq did here is make the same mistake Kobe made when the Lakers were dismantled by owner Jerry Buss in order to please him and convince him to re-sign as a free agent. Kobe should have said the following: “Phil, Shaq and myself have something special going here and I’d like to see us keep it together. So if they stay, I’ll stay.”

That would have never happened, of course, because Kobe didn’t want them to stay. He wanted them gone so he could run the franchise. But if he said that publicly, at least he would have covered his butt for the fans and the media while he worked surreptitiously to get what he wanted.

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Shaq should have learned from Kobe’s mistake. He should have realized how it would look if Van Gundy was shoved out the door right around the time Shaq returned to action. He should have said the following: “Stan Van Gundy’s our head coach. I have every confidence that he’ll lead us to an NBA championship and I’m looking forward to working with him toward that goal.” Meanwhile, he could have whispered in Riley’s ear what he really wanted.

Van Gundy could have saved his job by doing a better job of coaching. He needs to take responsibility for the team’s sluggish start. Other clubs have to deal with the loss of a key player for an extended period of time.

But this was more than the typical absence of a vital cog. Shaq is the central figure in the future of the Miami Heat, and as such he calls the shots, in public or behind the scenes. Aside from Riley, there aren’t many coaches who can survive on the wrong side of that.

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