Lakers trade Shaq for his weight in other players
Lakers Agree to Deal O'Neal to Miami Heat
By Tim Brown
Times Staff Writer
July 11, 2004
The Lakers have agreed in principle to trade Shaquille O'Neal to the Miami Heat, apparently ending a triumphant and tumultuous eight-year run in which the team won three NBA championships, team and league sources said Saturday.
In exchange for O'Neal, one of the greatest players of his era, the Lakers will receive forwards Lamar Odom and Caron Butler, center Brian Grant and a future first-round draft pick, the sources said. None of the players coming from Miami has been an All-Star. The deal cannot become official until late Tuesday night, when the league's two-week moratorium on trades and signings is lifted.
O'Neal arrived as a free agent from the Orlando Magic in 1996, heralding the beginning of what many envisioned as a long-running championship dynasty, one pairing the game's most imposing big man with another new arrival, teenage rookie guard Kobe Bryant. Their dominance took hold in the 1999-2000 season with the arrival of Coach Phil Jackson and the first of three consecutive titles, even as the two superstars occasionally feuded. But it all fell apart last season amid open rancor between the two and felony rape charges against Bryant.
The Lakers didn't comment on the deal.
