Shaquille O'Neal used to carry teams to titles and walk off with Finals MVP trophies like he was Michael Jordan, but we're a long, long way from those days.
"I just turned 39," Shaq said the other night in the Garden, before the Celtics put on a fourth-quarter clinic to beat the Knicks. "I feel good. But now when I get an injury, it takes bleepin' forever to heal."
One of the all-time greats was up on the stationery bike, doing his daily 15 miles, riding to nowhere for a good hour. He's the Big Bike Rider and that's all he can do now because of an injury to his right leg that has KO'd him from the last 21 games. He's missed 33 games in his first season in Boston because of injuries to his right knee, right calf and right hip and hasn't been on the practice floor with the Celtics since early last month, but he thinks he'll be back at practice next week. Then, there will be a Shaq watch in Boston to see when he actually plays.
But there's nothing set in stone, which is OK with Doc Rivers.
"Doc is the first guy who has said to me, 'I don't want you to rush back,'" said O'Neal, who has been known these last few seasons to take his sweet time when returning from an injury. "Doc says, 'Don't rush. We need you at 100 percent.'"
The Celtics didn't need Shaq against the Knicks, but they are going to need him for their playoff run. Once they traded Kendrick Perkins to Oklahoma City last month, that left a big, inviting hole in the middle of their defense, one that Dwight Howard and Andrew Bynum could very easily expose if the Celtics have to play the Magic and Lakers during the postseason.
It might be asking too much of Shaq to do what the underrated Perkins did on a nightly basis. If he didn't have to miss Game 7 against the Lakers last June after blowing out a knee, the Celtics might have walked out of Staples Center with banner No. 18. But it's not as if Nenad Krstic or Jermaine O'Neal can step in and give the Celtics an intimidating presence.
"I mean, Perk is a menacing-looking dude," Rivers said. "I watched him last night and he was tossing around bodies, left and right. It was awesome. That's just who Perk is."
But that's not who Shaq is, and never has been. He intimidating, all right, bulling his way to the basket. But it's been years since he dominated on a nightly basis.
I asked Rivers if it's difficult to know what to expect from the future Hall of Famer, after missing so much time this season. "It is. Obviously, one thing he's going to give us is size and hard fouls. The rest will be how healthy he is and what can he do. But we need that size. Obviously, the clock is ticking."
O'Neal wants to turn back the clock this spring, one last time, and get his fifth ring. After having very little impact in Miami, Phoenix and Cleveland in his last few playoff runs, riding shotgun with Dwyane Wade, Steve Nash and LeBron James, he wants to make a significant contribution and not just ride the coattails of Boston's Big Three. But it's going to depend on what he can do once he gets on the floor and whether he can stay healthy.
As he rode the bike in one of the Garden's back hallways, while his teammates were getting ready to play the Knicks, sweat poured off his forehead. The odometer read 13.7 miles, 1.3 miles before he reached home. He talked about the playoffs and how this could be his last run at a title.
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