“He’s the greatest of all my peeps,” Shaq says.

You weren’t expecting this, were you? Tell the truth—don’t lie, not to yourself. You had no idea he was going to become this. Greater than, as his Converse ad in this magazine displays. Even after the Final Four run two years ago, when he introduced himself; even after the Jamie-Foxx-in-Ray-like performance during the ’04 playoffs that had media voters trying to recast their ROY submissions; even after an Athens performance that had the world blaming everyone but him for the problems with USA basketball; even after making the All-Star team one year after playing in the Rookie Game... Still, you had no idea that he, a young black child from the under-respected south suburbs of the nation’s third largest city, with a Bo Ellis and Butch Lee NCAA pedigree, would be above the “next Mike” syndrome and on to the “new Kobe” paradox.

Slam does Dwyane. Again.

I'm the idiot. I wanted Maciej Lampe