Comedy, Shots and Shaq

As the NFL appears to be days - maybe even hours - from an agreement on the new collective bargaining agreement between the owners and the players, which will end the lockout and teams will rally their players for training camp as early as Monday, the NBA lockout continues without any chance of activities or negotiations between the players and owners.  However, it appears to be the NBA that is making the all the news this week:

Shaquille O'Neal will flex his muscles as an NBA analyst during the upcoming
NBA season...whenever that will be.

Recently retired Shaquille O'Neal had numerous nicknames throughout his 19-year NBA career: Shaq, The Diesel, The Big Aristotle, Superman, The Big Shaqtus (when he was in Phoenix), The Big Shamrock (when he was a Boston Celtic), and don't forget about Kazaam! (Click the link for ShaqFu fun).  But Shaq appears to be adding another title to his post-NBA life: The Big Critic.  Shaq has been signed by TNT and NBATV to be a full-time analyst a la Reggie Miller and Charles Barkley.  In his debut on NBATV as the NBA released it 2011-12 schedule (by the way, why are they talking about games taking place in November when the March games may not even be played...but that's a whole other blog entry), Shaq indicated that the Miami Heat would rise back to the top after losing to the Dallas Mavericks in this year's NBA Finals - led by the "Big 2".  The Big Critic!  See, the Heat has been known as the "Big 3" since LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and Dwayne Wade signed long-term contracts to team up in Miami last summer.  Shaq went on to say, "Dwayne Wade, LeBron James, you know, they're great players, they're probably the greatest backcourt ever assembled.  And you know, they're going to get back.  They're going to get back."  Calling out 18 point-per-game, 8 rebound-per-game star, Chris Bosh?  Big words for The Big Coat-Tail-Rider, who spent the last few years of his career limping from Cleveland to Boston trying to win another championship - just like he did as the sidekick to Wade in Miami in 2006 and to Kobe in LA from 2000-2002.  Let's hope The Big Critic doesn't try to become The Big Comedian when he could seriously add some value and experience to NBA analysis shows.

Ron Artest/Metta World Peace will put on his happy
face in hopes that the audiences that attend his comedy
shows will put on theirs.

Wish the same could be said for Ron Artest, who not only has now applied to have his name changed his to "Metta World Peace", but he has now taken up comedy as a part-time job during the NBA lockout.  When asked what Ron's (and Metta's...or Metta World Peace's) plans were during the NBA lockout, he responded: "We're definitely going to do some more comedy shows.  We had four this month, but one of them got canceled.  But we picked up like 10 more.  I was going to go overseas and keep it going (with basketball) and get a check, but the comedy shows are paying (as much as I would earn playing) overseas, so I can just stay over here and do comedy shows."  Okay, Ron - or is it Metta?  Or is it both because of the "we" references?  Whatever, hopefully Ron (Metta) doesn't move on from basketball just yet.  Shaq needs material.  Plus, we've already seen comedy, Ron Artest, and basketball all wrapped up in one play.  Check it out here.  Actually, now that I think about it, Ron/Metta may have something here...I've never laughed as hard as I did when Ron first thanked his psychiatrist when he was interviewed after the Lakers' Game 7 NBA Finals victory over the Celtics.  Classic!

By the way, The Jimmer is still The Jimmer - even during the lockout.  Check it out here.