It's all in a (nick)name?

Is it us here at the D-train Daily or is Shaq getting real crotchety in his advancing years? A couple of years back when he asked Kobe Bryant to tell him how his rear-end tastes while enduring a California divorce, we thought that we had seen big fella at his public-relations nadir. It seems that we will see him go even lower if the Orlando Magic and Cleveland Cavaliers should meet in the Eastern Conference Finals later this year.

In case you haven't heard Shaq went into a short tirade aimed at Magic Center Dwight Howard after his team beat the Magic last week. "Superman my ass," said O'Neal. "You tell me who the real Superman is."

Um, George Reeves?

O'Neal feels that Howard "stole" the Superman nickname from him. Many sportswriters second his inaccurate opinion. Obviously they are not fond of the Sportscenter commercial in which Howard plays a Clark Kent like persona.

But let's be clear, if O'Neal wants to throw barbs at Howard about the Superman name he opens a can of worms that dates back to 1932 when Superman was created by Joe Schuster and Jerry Seigel. Schuster and Seigel sold the character to Detective Comics in 1938. So if anyone has a real beef in this matter it is D.C. Comics.

Shaq apparently has a greed for nicknames like A.I.G. does for money. How many nicknames has O'Neal had over the years? The Diesel, The Big Aristotle, The Big Cactus, and so forth. O'Neal is lucky that all the anti-trust restrictions have been eased over the years because he would be in serious violation. He's trying to corner of the market.

Why does the 37 year-old O'Neal have all of this venom in his fangs for the 23 year-old Howard? Before last year's NBA Finals, O'Neal went on record with his hopes that the Magic would get swept by the Lakers. Does he really dislike Howard so much that he would root for Kobe Bryant?! Shaq went even further by tweeting a picture of what a child between Howard and Magic Head Coach Stan Van Gundy would look like.

Why O'Neal's maturity continues to diminish while his age increases is beyond anyone on the D-train Daily staff, but it's getting to the point of sad to watch.