Marion makes return to Phoenix as Shaq faces former team
Both Shaquille ONeal and Shawn Marion makes relationships with their former teams - relationships that have ended when they were dealt for each other last season. Friday night they will meet on the court for the 1st time since the trade sent ONeal from the Miami Heat to the Phoenix Suns for Marion.
For Marion, it is a return to a franchise where he is 2nd only to Alvan Adams in games, rebounds and steals and 4th all time behind Walter Davis, Kevin Johnson and Adams in points.
Although Marion departure from Phoenix followed a trade demand and the team's unwillingness to extend his contract, he told that he left Arizona on good terms.
"I love the fans in Phoenix and had a great 8 years there," Marion told, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "I was as sad to go just as much as they were sad to see me go. It's what is. It is a business."
Suns guard Steve Nash is expecting that Marion will get a warm welcome in Phoenix - and that he deserves it.
"It will be strange," Nash told, according to the Sun-Sentinel. "He is had 1 of the greatest Suns careers of all time. I do imagine he does have a great ovation. If he does not, I do be extremely disappointed."
As for ONeal? He will be playing in front of his home fans on Wednesday, and says it is "just another game."
But with Shaq, everything is bigger - and 3 were more hard feelings surrounding his departure from Miami following the Feb. 5 trade, in which he was critical of the team's medical staff and noted that in Phoenix, "no one is asking me to play with Chris Quinn or Ricky Davis."
"It ended the way I wanted it to end," ONeal told of his relationship with the Heat.
He is expecting that his reception in Miami, where the teams will meet again on March 4, won't be nearly as cordial.
"I will maybe get some boos," he told, according to the Miami Herald. "There is many speculation on how it ended, but it is cool. There' is really no hard feelings. It is a great organization. People say business had to be taken care of to get them back on track, and they did what they had to do. I understand."
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