Is it any wonder that the NBA player best at self-promotion in the last couple decades is the guy putting himself into the Orlando Magic General Manager discussion?
Last night we passed along the report that Shaquille O’Neal was going to sit down with the Magic and discuss their now vacant general manager position. Which all led us to wonder where the heck that idea came from?
Well, not the Magic, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.Shaq has been lobbying behind the scenes to be considered for the position, and the Magic -- in spite of the nastiest of divorces with O’Neal in the summer of 1996 -- are willing to at least sit down with the 40-year-old and give him the courtesy of hearing what he has to say.
That’s a long way from actually hiring Shaq. A L-O-N-G way, to borrow from Larry Bird’s spelling technique, from letting Shaq come back to a franchise he leveled as a free agent to be the guy who either convinces Dwight Howard to finally commit to the Magic long-term (after feuding with Dwight for years) or immediately takes on the monster responsibility of trying to find a sensible trade for Howard before next season (as rookie GM).
It’s a courtesy conversation. Kind of like that date your mother set you up on with that “cute” girl from the hair salon.
Which is good for the Magic fans and franchise, because Shaq is not GM material. Even the GMs in this league not great at their job work long hours and very hard at it, watching games and film, devouring statistics, talking to scouts and other teams. When was the last time Shaq worked hard at something?
Shaq as part owner of a franchise one day? I could see that. But GM? Still the worst idea ever.