2002 NBA FINALS MVP: MORE TO COME, SAYS SHAQ MVP AWARD CULMINATION OF A `MONSTER' SEASON.Byline: Michael A. Anastasi Sports Editor Noun 1. sports editor - the newspaper editor responsible for sports news newspaper editor - the editor of a newspaper EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Right now, this kind of domination is expected. In fact, the word domination has dominated the news conferences here, for no one can think of a better way to describe Shaquille O'Neal's play. And rightly so. He was named Most Valuable Player of the NBA Finals The NBA Finals is the championship series of the National Basketball Association. The team winning the Eastern Conference Finals earns one of the two berths in the championship round, with the other going to the team that wins the Western Conference Finals. for the third consecutive year Wednesday night, after the Lakers clinched their third consecutive title with a 113-107 victory over New Jersey. ``When it's all said and done,'' O'Neal said, ``I can, as long as I'm with Phil Jackson
Philip Douglas "Phil" Jackson (born September 17, 1945 in Deer Lodge, Montana) is the current coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, an American professional basketball team. , go down as one of the best.'' O'Neal scored 34 points Wednesday and averaged 36.3 points per game in this series, and he set a record for a four-game Finals with 145 total points, breaking Hakeem ha·keem n. Variant of hakim1. Noun 1. hakeem - a Muslim physician hakim Moslem, Muslim - a believer in or follower of Islam doc, doctor, physician, Dr. Olajuwon's 1995 record of 131. And it all came before friends and family a few miles from where he grew up in Newark, N.J. ``I went to the park where I first started last night about 12, 1:30 (a.m.),'' O'Neal said. ``As a youngster, I used to play with the raggedy rag·ged·y adj. rag·ged·i·er, rag·ged·i·est Tattered or worn-out; ragged. basketball my father got me. I used to dream about certain things. I stuck with it and all my dreams have come true.'' The 40 points O'Neal had in Game 2 was the fifth time he reached that plateau in his Finals career. Only Michael Jordan This article is about the former basketball player. For other uses, see Michael Jordan (disambiguation). Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17 1963) is a retired American professional basketball player. , who was named Finals MVP (Multimedia Video Processor) A high-speed DSP chip from Texas Instruments, introduced in 1994. Officially introduced as the TMS320C80, it combines RISC technology with the functionality of four DSPs on one chip. three times in a row twice, and Jerry West
``What can I say?'' Nets coach Byron Scott Byron Scott may refer to:
Yet what has defined O'Neal in these Finals has not been so much his scoring in the paint as his scoring from the free-throw line free-throw line n. See foul line. . O'Neal made 66 percent of his foul shots, an improvement of 15 percentage points from 2001, and eliminated the final weakness in his game. He also, stunningly to those who have followed his career, set the Finals record for free throws made in a four-game series, with 45. The previous record, 34, was set by Washington's Phil Chenier Philip Chenier (born October 30 1950 in Berkeley, California) was a professsional basketball player. After playing for Berkeley High School and the University of California in Berkeley, Chenier played professionally for the Washington Bullets in the National Basketball Association in 1975. RIP, Hack-A-Shaq. ``I just knew I had to hit them,'' O'Neal said. ``In any part of this series, if I were to start missing them, they probably would go into Hack- A-Shaq as a strategy. I just said to myself, 'We need them all.' Hack-A-Shaq never really worked anyway.'' O'Neal, challenged by his coach to elevate his game just a couple of weeks ago despite the myriad injuries with which he's been dealing, repeatedly credited Jackson and his unorthodox coaching methods. ``Phil has a system and we go over the system every day,'' O'Neal said. ``We dream about the system, we read about the system. ``The first ring, when we were on the brink of elimination, he would come in, not a worry in the world, just say, 'Listen, this is what you got to do.' We'd have like 10-minute practices. 'This is what you got to do, blase bla·sé adj. 1. Uninterested because of frequent exposure or indulgence. 2. Unconcerned; nonchalant: had a blasé attitude about housecleaning. 3. Very sophisticated. , blase. If you don't do this, you're going to lose.' ``If the president isn't scared and the general isn't scared, then the troops shouldn't be scared. He's a great motivator.'' Interestingly, Jackson believes what transformed O'Neal, who averaged 25.7 points with Orlando in the 1995 postseason when the Magic reached the Finals, from a dominant player to the dominant player has not been what he's done with the ball. It's what he's done without it. ``The nemesis that kept him from winning a championship when I got this job was the fact that his defense away from the basket was limited,'' Jackson said. ``He didn't want to stray. He was afraid of getting fouls. He was going to have to be much more active as a defender if he was going to win, both in transition defense and in screen-roll defense. ``You could see that basically when we've been attacked. He's done a great job of playing it when he's had to play down the stretch and knowing how to come out and defend like that.'' So now people wonder if the Eastern Conference ever can be competitive as long as O'Neal is in the league, whether the NBA NBA abbr. 1. National Basketball Association 2. National Boxing Association NBA (US) n abbr (= National Basketball Association) → Basketball-Dachverband (= needs to change its rules as it did to limit dominating big men such as Wilt Chamberlain Wilton Norman "Wilt" Chamberlain (August 21, 1936–October 12, 1999), nicknamed Wilt the Stilt and The Big Dipper, was an American professional National Basketball Association (NBA) basketball player for the Philadelphia / San Francisco Warriors, the and George Mikan George Lawrence Mikan, Jr. (June 18, 1924 – June 1, 2005), nicknamed Mr. Basketball, was an American professional basketball player for the Chicago American Gears of the National Basketball League (NBL) and the Minneapolis Lakers of the NBL, the Basketball Association in the past. ``Doesn't matter,'' Kobe Bryant said. ``You're talking about Shaquille. You're not going to find players (who can stop him) in the West, East, North, South.'' Said New Jersey's Jason Kidd: ``I don't have an answer. I think there are 28 coaches who haven't come up with the answer, either.'' NBA CHAMPIONS 2001-02 - L.A. Lakers 2000-01 - L.A. Lakers 1999-00 - L.A. Lakers 1998-99 - San Antonio Spurs The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio, Texas. They play in the National Basketball Association (NBA), and are the current NBA Champions after defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2007 NBA Finals. 1997-98 - Chicago Bulls 1996-97 - Chicago Bulls 1995-96 - Chicago Bulls 1994-95 - Houston Rockets 1993-94 - Houston Rockets 1992-93 - Chicago Bulls 1991-92 - Chicago Bulls 1990-91 - Chicago Bulls 1989-90 - Detroit Pistons 1988-89 - Detroit Pistons 1987-88 - L.A. Lakers 1986-87 - L.A. Lakers 1985-86 - Boston Celtics 1984-85 - L.A. Lakers 1983-84 - Boston Celtics 1982-83 - Philadelphia 76ers 1981-82 - L.A. Lakers 1980-81 - Boston Celtics 1979-80 - L.A. Lakers 1978-79 - Seattle SuperSonics 1977-78 - Washington Bullets 1976-77 - Portland Trail Blazers The Portland Trail Blazers are a professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. They play in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The franchise, based in Portland throughout its existence, entered the league in 1970 and has won the NBA Championship once, in 1977. 1975-76 - Boston Celtics 1974-75 - Golden State Warriors The Golden State Warriors are a professional basketball team based in Oakland, California. The team plays in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Franchise history Philadelphia Warriors 1973-74 - Boston Celtics 1972-73 - New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Knicks 1971-72 - L.A. Lakers 1970-71 - Milwaukee Bucks 1969-70 - New York Knicks 1968-69 - Boston Celtics 1967-68 - Boston Celtics 1966-67 - Philadelphia 76ers 1965-66 - Boston Celtics 1964-65 - Boston Celtics 1963-64 - Boston Celtics 1962-63 - Boston Celtics 1961-62 - Boston Celtics 1960-61 - Boston Celtics 1959-60 - Boston Celtics 1958-59 - Boston Celtics 1957-58 - St. Louis Hawks 1956-57 - Boston Celtics 1955-56 - Philadelphia Warriors 1954-55 - Syracuse Nationals 1953-54 - Minneapolis Lakers 1952-53 - Minneapolis Lakers 1951-52 - Minneapolis Lakers 1950-51 - Rochester Royals 1949-50 - Minneapolis Lakers 1948-49 - Minneapolis Lakers 1947-48 - Baltimore Bullets 1946-47 - Philadelphia Warriors NBA FINALS MVP 2002 - Shaquille O'Neal, L.A. Lakers 2001 - Shaquille O'Neal, L.A. Lakers 2000 - Shaquille O'Neal, L.A. Lakers 1999 - Tim Duncan, San Antonio 1998 - Michael Jordan, Chicago 1997 - Michael Jordan, Chicago 1996 - Michael Jordan, Chicago 1995 - Hakeem Olajuwon, Houston 1994 - Hakeem Olajuwon, Houston 1993 - Michael Jordan, Chicago 1992 - Michael Jordan, Chicago 1991 - Michael Jordan, Chicago 1990 - Isiah Thomas, Detroit 1989 - Joe Dumars, Detroit 1988 - James Worthy, L.A. Lakers 1987 - Magic Johnson, L.A. Lakers 1986 - Larry Bird, Boston 1985 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, L.A. Lakers 1984 - Larry Bird, Boston 1983 - Moses Malone, Philadelphia 1982 - Magic Johnson, L.A. Lakers 1981 - Cedric Maxwell, Boston 1980 - Magic Johnson, L.A. Lakers 1979 - Dennis Johnson, Seattle 1978 - Wes Unseld, Washington 1977 - Bill Walton, Portland 1976 - Jo Jo White, Boston 1975 - Rick Barry, Golden State 1974 - John Havlicek, Boston 1973 - Willis Reed, New York 1972 - Wilt Chamberlain, L.A. Lakers 1971 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Milwaukee 1970 - Willis Reed, New York 1969 - Jerry West, L.A. Lakers CAPTION(S): photo, 2 boxes Photo: Finals Most Valuable Player Shaquille O'Neal slam dunks over the New Jersey Nets' Aaron Williams (34) in the first half of Game 4 Wednesday in East Rutherford, N.J. John McCoy/Staff Photographer Box: (1) NBA CHAMPIONS (see text) (2) NBA FINALS MVP (see text) |
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