| | OAKLAND, Calif. -- Shaq showed his power and glimpses of
finesse, too. And Tim Duncan was his usual long-armed presence in
the middle with great touch, reaching above the pack for inside
baskets and stuffs.
Who was more important for the West in its 137-126 All-Star
victory over the East on Sunday? It was a tossup, so much so that
Shaquille O'Neal and Duncan shared the MVP award in the 49th game.
|  | | Western Conference teammates Tim Duncan, left, and Shaquille O'Neal shared the MVP trophy. |
"Shaq's a force to deal with night in and night out," Duncan
said of his co-winner.
"You don't see many MVP guys who can go inside and outside,"
O'Neal said, returning the praise.
It marked just the third time in All-Star history there had been
a co-MVP and first since 1993 when Utah teammates Karl Malone and
John Stockton shared the award following the game at Salt Lake
City.
In 1959, Elgin Baylor of Minneapolis and Bob Pettit of St. Louis
were co-winners.
O'Neal didn't even play the fourth quarter because he had a sore
shoulder. Before he left, he showed the versatility and the brute
strength that on many nights makes him unstoppable.
He dribbled coast-to-coast for a finger roll layin in the first
half, he banked in short jumpers and he drove down numerous dunks -- one after he got alone for a 360-degree spin-and-stuff that the public-address announcer summed up as "Shaq slam."
"I told Kobe (Bryant) if I got a break, I'd do something nasty.
I was going to windmill but my shoulder gave out, so I just did a
little 360," O'Neal said.
And on his ball-handling exhibition from one end to the other?
"I saw an opening. I just took a couple of dribbles with long
strides and laid it up," said the 7-foot-1, 315-pound O'Neal.
Duncan's steady play that led the Spurs to their first title
last year was evident all day, as he hit 12 of 14 shots.
His most pronounced dunk came in the final minutes after the
West had pulled away when he took a nifty blind pass from Kevin
Garnett and drove the ball down with his left hand, punctuating the
victory.
"Kevin just made a great pass to me. I went up and Zo (Alonzo
Mourning) was there and the ball just went down for me," Duncan
said.
"This is the kind of game where you have to get out and run and
know the ball is coming. You have to keep your hands up."
O'Neal, finished with 22 points and nine rebounds. Duncan had 24
points and grabbed 14 rebounds, seven on the offensive end.
"It was our size against their quickness," Duncan said. "On
this day size won."
O'Neal said he enjoyed his seventh NBA All-Star game and not
just because he shared an MVP award.
"Watching Vince Carter win the slam dunk contest. I've never
seen anybody do stuff like that," O'Neal said.
"Now that I've become a veteran, I rested a little more and I took in some of the festivities. When I was younger, all I did was
party, party, party." | |
ALSO SEE
West is the best in NBA All-Star Game
 |
