Sure, Jermaine O'Neal can dunk. But should the Pacers retire his number?
Jermaine O’Neal, who was recently traded to the Toronto Raptors after eight seasons with the Indiana Pacers, has undoubtedly been one of the better prep-to-pro basketball players to come around. Not Kobe, KG, or LeBron, but pretty good nonetheless.
He didn’t really get decent until he was traded away from the Portland Trail Blazers, where he had spent four years mostly just racking up limited minutes or DNP-CDs. However, at least one RealGM writer feels JO’s Pacers’ tenure may be worthy of commemoration by the team sometime down the line:
As his career currently stands, O’Neal will not make the Hall of Fame. However, it wouldn’t be hard to envision the Pacers retiring his jersey once the sun has set on his career. That’d be no small feat in Indiana, where just four players have their name and number hanging in the rafters.
Is eight years of 18.6 ppg, 9.6 rpg, and 2.4 bpg with a team enough? Definitely not too shabby, and they’re better than the raw stats of the man behind Pacers’ retired No. 35, Roger Brown, but Brown played on an ABA champion Pacers’ team. Mel Daniels (No. 34) had similar, though slightly better numbers, but also played on that championship team. The other Pacers’ number-retirees — Reggie Miller (No. 31) and the stat-stuffing, ABA MVP George McGinnis (No. 30) – were shoo-ins for number retirement.
So, in JO’s case, should zero championships, a most improved player award (for goodness sake), and one third-place finish in MVP voting do the trick in rounding out the numbers?
What about the time O’Neal spent injured? Is “what could’ve been” meritous of having his No. 7 hang in the Conseco Fieldhouse rafters?
Also of note in the RealGM article: ”Quite simply, Jermaine O’Neal is a class act.”
Sure, he seems like a straight-shooting guy in most interviews, but, um, what about the time JO slugged the dude in the face during the Malice At The Palace? Wasn’t that whole situation was quite unbecoming of what the Pacers organization likes to promote, let alone unbecoming of a “class-act”?
Or how about when O’Neal got pissed off because the Pacers signed him to a long-term deal and then fired Isaiah Thomas as coach, who he said he wanted to play for? Didn’t he say he would’ve signed with the Spurs if he’d have known Indiana was going to fire Thomas?
What about when he cried tears of joy at his introductory press conference with the Raptors, noting he was glad to have a fresh start?
Number retirements aren’t things to be thrown around. They should be reserved for the absolute best or most meaningful players with a franchise. O’Neal proved he was a pretty good player, but with Reggie Miller around to soak in the bulk of any adulation the team got, was JO really considered that meaningful?
O’Neal still has some time to play, and the Pacers have plenty of time to think about it. They’re gonna need it because retiring JO’s number won’t be that easy to decide.
