OPINION

By Mike Wise

updated 12:29 a.m. ET June 28, 2009

When the rumor first gained genuine steam some two weeks ago, Kobe Bryant's championship night was nearly upstaged. When the trade officially went through Thursday, Blake Griffin's big moment was shoved to the back burner.

The Orlando Magic, meanwhile, heard footsteps ominous enough to make the defending Eastern Conference champions go out and procure Vince Carter later that day.

And now, the reverberations of Shaquille O'Neal pairing with LeBron James in Cleveland are still being felt, with Shaq undeniably gaining an upper hand on Kobe and Tim Duncan in the race for a fifth NBA championship ring.

All of which begs the question: More than 10 years after Michael Jordan announced his second retirement, who is the most accomplished player of the post-Jordan generation: Shaq, Kobe or Duncan?

When I broached that question two weeks ago, before Game 5 of the NBA Finals, to some pretty decent basketball minds — Jack Ramsay, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson — Duncan was almost a unanimous choice.

While all three players have four rings, the thinking went that Duncan was the No. 1 player on all four of San Antonio's title teams; Shaq rode Dwyane Wade to his fourth in Miami and Kobe rode Shaq for his first three in Los Angeles.

"I think I might go for Kobe," Dr. Jack said, dissenting. "Because of the way down the stretch in big games he almost always comes up with the necessary play. There's a killer instinct about him that I don't see in the other three guys as much."

But no one considered Shaq, who, like Duncan, has three Finals MVP awards, and unlike anyone since Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, has been to six NBA Finals and won four.

Maybe because, at age 37, they figured O'Neal was physically done, despite playing more games last season (75) than he did the previous eight years. Maybe because his name has superseded his game, and all the juvenile sideshow antics have prejudiced too many ultra-serious hoopheads.

But a year from now, if O'Neal becomes a big reason why LeBron earns his first NBA title next season, he will have played with the three most breathtaking players since Jordan re-retired from the Bulls in 1998 after six titles. Remarkably, Shaq will have been to the NBA Finals one more time than Jordan, and with four — count them, four — different teams.

How would that not make the Diesel the most important player of his generation?

Look, the moment this trade was made Shaq was back, in the thick of it again after the Suns inexplicably missed the playoffs.

The idea that his half-court plodding will hurt LeBron's full-court levitation is just silly. Half-court basketball wins in the NBA when it matters — just ask the Suns, the Mavericks, the Kings and any team coached by Don Nelson how many push-the-tempo clubs have won titles the past 20 years.

Slideshow   Are you a witness? A look at the highs and lows of Cavaliers guard LeBron James' career.

The Cavs acquiring O'Neal wasn't just a statement from Cleveland General Manager Danny Ferry to LeBron about the franchise's championship-level commitment; it was good business for a club that now has to be a favorite to win the 2010 title.

The moment the trade happened, the Lakers knew they had to re-sign Lamar Odom and Trevor Ariza or else. And the aging Celtics, the not-ready-for-prime-time Magic and hopeful second- and third-tier contenders like the Wizards were in a heap of trouble — trouble no watered-down NBA draft could fix.

My friend Wilbon thinks the Wizards passed on the second coming of Pistol Pete on Thursday. Maybe in three years Ricky Rubio becomes that player. Today, the fifth-picked Spanish Chocolate is a sweet diversion but hardly nourishing enough at 18 years old to deliver a playoff run into late May.

These are the Win-Now-or-Back-Up-the-Truck Wizards. Ernie Grunfeld hitched his legacy to Gilbert Arenas, Caron Butler and, at least for now, Antawn Jamison. Unless his name was Earvin Johnson, throwing a teenager into that mix at this juncture is playing with fire.

The Wizards need to move at least past the first round of the playoffs and appear on the verge this season or the contender window looks that much closer to shutting on this era. They won't win the East next year because of what just happened in Cleveland and Orlando. But it would be a start.

About the best they can hope for is the best the other teams in the league can hope for after Wednesday: that Shaquille O'Neal has only one good year left to play alongside the best young player in the NBA.

Also on NBCSports.com Rosenthal: Saints win with aggressive ‘ambush’ Trash Talk: How will Manning rebound from loss? NBA: ProBasketballTalk is here! Check out new blog NCAA BK: Who's in, who's out? Updated bracket projections Twitter: Follow us @nbc_sports

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