Michael Ventre

It’s highly unlikely that Shaquille O’Neal has been throwing darts at a photo of Kobe Bryant in recent months. Perhaps the old Shaq might have done something like that. But the new Shaq is older, wiser, more mature, more grounded. He has let his anger go. He helped the Miami Heat win a championship, after all, even if this season makes it feel like so long ago. He is above vengeance over petty differences from years past. If I may take this opportunity to combine clichés, that is water under some burned bridges.

And yet, it’s difficult to digest this sudden and unexpected trade of Shaq to the Phoenix Suns without viewing it in the context of Kobe. Shaq is back in the West. Shaq has returned to torment Kobe. Only days after the Lakers picked the Memphis Grizzlies’ pocket by acquiring Pau Gasol for the stretch run, the Suns engineered a stunner of their own, acquiring Shaq from the woeful Heat in exchange for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks.

In Phoenix, suddenly it was known as Super Tuesday for an entirely different reason.

The reason this is a Shaq-Kobe issue is simple: The Gasol deal altered the balance of power in the West. The Shaq transaction then threw everything out of whack again.

This is not to suggest the Lakers and Suns are the only teams in the West. There is a little organization known as the San Antonio Spurs that will still have a lot to say about which team makes the NBA Finals and wins the championship. There will also be murmurs of protest coming out of Dallas, Utah and New Orleans, and perhaps others.

But this is a rekindling of the Shaq-Kobe rivalry because those two players are proud superstars whose competitive edges will become stiletto sharp now that they will be pitted against each other for supremacy in the West. They may have put many of their personal differences aside, but their egos have remained gargantuan.

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Shaq has had to toil on a dreadful Miami Heat team this season. Worse, he has had to endure suggestions that he’s overweight, immobile and useless, although he’s probably used to hearing that by now. He is owed $40 million for two seasons beyond this one, money that helps perpetuate his opulent lifestyle while it reinforces the suggestion that Miami blew it when it signed him to a fat contract extension.

But life in Phoenix might serve to revive the big lug. Like most players, he thrives when he’s surrounded by good teammates. Pat Riley’s Heat had corroded into a rusty hulk of a houseboat. But before that, when the Heat possessed some semblance of competitiveness, Shaq would occasionally provide a sample of his previous ferociousness. He doesn’t have enough left to dominate, but he can still chip in with an occasional dunk and a sneer.

That may be all the Suns need to pursue a title. Many will question whether the Suns need a bloated has-been in the middle when they excel at a revved-up game. Those doubts are legitimate. However, remember that in the 1980s Kareem Abdul-Jabbar managed to lumber up and down the court while his Laker teammates zoomed by in Showtime splendor, and that worked out fairly well.

Shaq doesn’t have to run the floor and keep up. He has to stand in the middle on defense and dissuade drivers to the hoop while challenging shots. He also has to catch lightning-quick feeds from Steve Nash and slam the ball home. That’s it. He can still do that limited role better than 90 percent of the guys at his position. He’ll adjust to the Suns, and the Suns will adjust to him.

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