With NBA Media Day out of the way, we can finally pay attention to the important stuff like Shaquille O’Neal still crapping all over new Los Angeles Lakers center Dwight Howard. After previously declaring that Andrew Bynum was a better center than Howard, Shaq is now telling anyone who will listen to him that Brooklyn Nets center Brook Lopez is better than Howard, too.

Can we just fast forward to the premiere of 30 for 30’s Broke 2: The Shaquille O’Neal Story?

“Listen to what I’m saying. I’m not talking about dunking, I’m talking about playing like a big man with the moves. My man, before he had the foot injury, was putting up nice, solid big man numbers. He don’t have a lot of flash, a la Tim Duncan, but he can play. If you put him with a nice team around him, you can get a lot from this big man. Like if you want to go to go to flash and dunking and the pick and roll, you gotta go with Dwight Howard. But me, the last true original dundaughta (slang for big timer), I’m going with Andrew Bynum and which Lopez? Brook. Brook Lopez.” (Via ESPN)

I give O’Neal credit for trying to make it sound like he’s being analytical and not just a dick. He is being a dick, though. We all know he is. But that’s the fun of Shaq being an NBA “expert” now for TNT – he gets a platform from which to make fun of Howard for completely replicating O’Neal’s career, sans the NBA titles and MVP trophies. Those may come in due time, though.

Howard, to his credit, remains all smiles since being traded by the Orlando Magic to the team that he said he wouldn’t play for, and that grin was ear to ear during Media Day. While he promised that he’d finally grow up and take the game more seriously, Howard did what he does best and hammed it up for the L.A. media, as he and his Lakers teammates provided some of the more colorful Media Day photos of the week.

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With a 1.5 game lead over the Milwaukee Bucks for the 8th playoff spot in the East, it seems like the New York Knicks are in good position to at least make the playoffs. They’re still sitting at .500 (27-27) as they have been for most of the season, and even the energy of a new coach and system isn’t helping them get over the hump and back into serious contention, despite some analysts who have the Knicks pegged as a title contender hiding in the best spot possible. Because any team, regardless of talent level, really wants to play the No. 1 seed in the first round of the playoffs.

But over in China, an old Knick is proving that he had some gas left in the tank to get himself a championship. Stephon Marbury and the Beijing Ducks – mmmmmmmm, Beijing duck – are the new Chinese Basketball Association champions, after Starbury scored 41 points in Game 5 to oust the defending champions, Guangdong Hongyuan. Marbury also scored 52 points in Game 2 and 53 points in Game 3, so if you were wondering how the New York sports media would pass the time with Jeremy Lin out for the season… stop.

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