That's when the Suns will host the All-Star Game.

That's also when O'Neal could be reduced to hometown mascot.

No longer in the Eastern Conference, where Zydrunas Ilgauskas can pass for a dominant big man, O'Neal almost certainly figures to be trumped by Yao Ming in the fan balloting for the Western Conference's starting berth at center, thanks to the worldwide clout of balloting on the web.

That's when conference coaches will take over, naming one or two reserve centers. Now, perhaps Greg Oden won't be up to speed by then, but Andrew Bynum could be. If the voting is strictly by the numbers, that would make a case for Al Jefferson. Team success? That could open the door for Tyson Chandler. Productive post play? Chris Kaman would have that edge.

A year ago, when O'Neal looked old and clearly had grown disinterested in playing for Pat Riley in Miami, there was speculation about him stepping away from the game while still under contract. That was followed by guffaws from those who grasp that O'Neal hasn't met a dollar he didn't appreciate.

This past summer, though, he started a clock on the countdown to the final days of his current contact, hardly what a team wants to hear on the eve of a season.

He then said he was merely talking about the end of this pay cycle, not necessarily the end of his career.

But flash back three years ago when he was coming off what ultimately might prove to be his final championship, when he said of the arc of his career, "I think I still can find a way to contribute. And if I can't find a way to contribute, then I'll be a backup at 37, 38. It'll just be something I have to accept."

He turns 37 in March, just over a month from the start of the playoffs, when the Suns hope to find vindication after last season's five-game, first-round ouster at the hands of the Spurs.

Failing a playoff upgrade, though, the Suns' era for Shaq could prove far shorter than even the Heat era.

Then he becomes a paper loss, an expiring contract auctioned off as an accounting measure.

Next season that could make him Stephon Marbury or Jamaal Tinsley, a mere name on a roster instead of a face of a franchise.

No, he is not looking to reprise the Patrick Ewing era in Seattle.

So you may just want to catch him now. This season. While the league still takes measure of the man, instead of a soon-to-be-expiring contract.

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