Early in the evening, dressed regally in royal blue all the way down to his suede shoes, Shaquille O'Neal entered the players' entrance at the TD Waterhouse Centre and made a right instead of a left.

One way heads to the visiting locker room, the other to the home.

It is a minor difference.

In a major way.

It is six seasons now that Shaquille O'Neal has been making that right-hand turn, the wrong turn, dressing in the wrong locker room, sitting on the wrong bench.

Six seasons since he left for the Left Coast.

He was only in Orlando for four.

Hard to believe.

Time moves on, but it seems to have stood still for the Magic. The "what ifs" that were once whispers grow louder with each passing year. They have become a roar, hard to ignore, as Shaq continues to add NBA titles to the legend that is the Los Angeles Lakers. Each visit back, like the one he made Wednesday night, wearing the hated purple and gold, is a reminder wrought with pain.Shaq enjoys last laugh

When O'Neal left Orlando, many of us (me included) said he'd never win an NBA title. We enjoyed trotting out the old quote he once blithely uttered, when he said he had won "at every level except college and the pros."

We'd laugh at that one. Mockingly.

Of course, we know now who has gotten the last laugh.

Shaq is only five weeks shy of 30 years old, and yet if you were starting an NBA franchise and you could pick one player to build your team around, would you choose anybody else but him? You can talk all you want about the Kobe Bryants and the Vince Carters and the Tracy McGradys and the Kevin Garnetts. You can theorize and hypothesize and philosophize until your face turned blue, but when it really comes down to it all those guys stand in Shaq's shadow -- literally and otherwise.

Shaq, his game more complete and his maturity more advanced, is the reason why the Lakers are on the verge of winning a third NBA Championship. Last night, he did his typical bullying beneath the basket, pushing the likes of Andrew DeClercq around like a rag doll. And he threw enough bricks from the free-throw line to build a house. But you don't need to be an astute student of the game to see that he has a repertoire of shots around the basket and a rare athleticism for a man of his size.

He led all scorers, which, of course, included Kobe and T-Mac. His Lakers won.

So you can't help but wonder what would've been had he stayed in The City Beautiful? Would it be the Magic who were now motoring toward a third NBA title? Would building a new modern arena be a foregone conclusion instead of a topic for raging debate? Would the Magic be sporting a "For Sale" sign today?

Turn right, or turn left?

It makes all the difference.Bigger than Mickey

To be sure, there were hugs and handshakes waiting for Shaq when he entered the arena. Security people. Stadium support. The little folks that Shaq has always connected so well with. He is just one of many stars in the solar system that is Southern California. But had Shaq stayed in Orlando, he'd be bigger than that mouse named Mickey.

It hurts.

And everybody knows it.

"People around here will always be injured and stung by it," Magic coach Doc Rivers said. "But there's nothing we can do about it now. You move on and we're trying to win a title here without him. But there will always be a 'How can you lose Shaq?' syndrome around here until we do something big. And, really, that's the only way it can be."

And so that's the way it is.

People booed Shaq last night, but not with a whole lot of heart in it, certainly not as lustily as back in the late '90s, when the wound of Shaq's defection was still fresh. Shaq's cutting remarks about Orlando being "a dried up old pond" had penetrated deep.

But he is still an Orlando resident, his house in Isleworth his main crib. Shaq even returned here recently when he incurred a three-game suspension and had a rare week off. He maintains that not only will he maintain his home here, but that he will return for good one day.

Of course, that day will be when his playing career is over.

Right or left?