Two Reasons to Love Shaq

Reason #1: He lends his name to a line of shoes that are affordable (hear that MJ).

Reason #2: This:

Shaquille O'Neal has done what the skeptics said Shaq would never do.
The Big Pay Cut, by his own choosing, has surrendered his standing as the game's highest-paid player.

True story: O'Neal will have the richest salary in the league for only one more season. That's because Shaq, after agreeing to a new five-year contract worth $125 million, called back to tell his bosses he'd take $100 million instead.

So for the next half-decade, through his 38th birthday, O'Neal will earn $20 million annually. That means Kevin Garnett and Chris Webber will make more in 2006-07, followed by Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury surpassing Shaq in 2007-08, after which Tim Duncan, Jason Kidd and old pal Kobe Bryant zoom by in 2008-09.

It's all happening because Shaq, who first had to opt out of the $30.6 million Miami owed him for the '05-06 season alone, knows the Heat have a better chance to put championship depth around him at this lower number.