Visualize Victory…

The truly great see victory before the game begins

Given all the changes that have occurred recently it may seem like it happened forever ago, but in reality only two years have passed since this scene played out at the NBA finals.

As his 7-foot-1, 325-pound frame would suggest, Shaquille O’Neal is as dominant a player as the NBA has ever seen.
In 2006, four years after O’Neal had won his third NBA Title with the Los Angeles Lakers, Shaq was playing for another championship – this time with the Miami Heat, who had acquired him in a trade two years before. But Shaq “Diesel” was no longer the talk of the NBA. O’Neal’s new team was heavily overshadowed by the up and coming Dallas Mavericks and their 7-foot superstar Dirk Nowitzki. In fact, in a best of seven series most didn’t think the Heat were capable of winning a single game.