The Official Site of Jermaine O'Neal

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Thu, Oct 23rd 2008, 17:07

Star dimming, O’Neal sees brighter days in Toronto

Johnny Ludden, Yahoo! Sports
His season over, his career at a crossroads, Jermaine O’Neal walked out of Conseco Fieldhouse and into the night. He lingered outside the exit just long enough for his wife, Mesha, to see the nostalgia flicker in his eyes. O’Neal knew this much: He wasn’t coming back.

As much as O’Neal had grown to love Indianapolis, as much as he owed the Indiana Pacers and their former president, Donnie Walsh, for taking him out of Portland and helping make him an NBA All-Star, his was a damaged marriage with the Pacers. The 2004 brawl in Detroit – resulting in a string of season-killing suspensions, along with four years of court proceedings – had hung over the team, in O’Neal’s words, like a “curse.” Ron Artest rapped his way out of town. Stephen Jackson shot his way out. Jamaal Tinsley couldn’t stay healthy or out of trouble.

The fans weren’t stupid. They stopped coming. What had once been one of the NBA’s great home courts sat half-empty on most nights.

“It was like a morgue,” O’Neal said last weekend. “You walk into that arena every day, and people just knew it was a bad situation. They knew that it wasn’t going to get better anytime soon.

“I was just worn. …I was begging for a change.”

A little more than two months later, the Pacers agreed to trade him to the Toronto Raptors for T.J. Ford, Rasho Nesterovic and Toronto’s first-round pick. O’Neal got his fresh start. He also lost his excuses.

All the off-court distractions, all those missed games and injuries matter not. O’Neal begins anew in Toronto.

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Comments

pat kozak | on 3/11/08

You might not have felt welcome in Indiana, but you are sure a breath of fresh air for the Toronto Raptors. Chris Bosh needed someone like yourself to take some of the pressure off and great, they found someone.

Good luck in Toronto. We as fans feel fortunate to have you.