Trade Shaquille O'Neal? Insanity!

Yet you will hear serious whispers about this maybe in a few months, probably by the middle of next season, certainly by this time next year, when the Los Angeles Lakers tumble out of the postseason again.

Dump the NBA's most dominant big man? Heresy!

But Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was traded when he was 28. Wilt Chamberlain was traded twice, when he was 28 and 31. Middle-career goliaths need new lands to conquer, and the league is revitalized when it happens.

O'Neal, who left Orlando as a free agent for L.A. when he was 24 and is 31 now, should have six or seven years left of dominance. But he has gotten sluggish after three championships in L.A., his career expectancy lapsing from Epic to Possibly Abbreviated By Boredom.