"Goodbye will never come so unceremoniously for Shaquille O'Neal, so abruptly as a 15-second video burst on Twitter. There will be marching bands and music and something much, much louder. This wasn't a retirement, as much as it was a chance to crash LeBron James' and Dwyane Wade's championship coronation. Maybe O'Neal believes this is the end, but perhaps he'll prove too intoxicated with the drama of comebacks and rebirths to stay away for good.

Goodbye will never come this way. There's still a comeback left within him, still some late-season clandestine workouts with teams to show he can be useful in the playoffs.

A former front-office executive, former coach and former teammate of O'Neal's privately agreed with the premise on Wednesday: Shaq will try to play again. There will be one more ill-conceived, clumsy comeback for him.

As one of his ex-coaches says, "If there's a lockout, I can see him bored with whatever he's doing, wanting the attention and trying to come back with a team later in the season."

When you're bigger than life, that's the problem. Where do you go next? Television? Movies? As long as O'Neal still thinks he can play, still thinks there's a basketball job, it's hard to see him leaving this way. He talked of his Achilles injury, and how that can have such long-term ramifications. Still, he could talk himself back into playing as easily as he's talking himself out of it now.

Everyone wishes Shaq had retired years ago, but why? His legacy is untouched: four titles, 15 All-Star appearances and somehow only one MVP trophy. Shaq was the superstar's superstar. No athlete ever blended such dominance and such charisma. As much as anything, he was a force of nature. Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are forever centers in the history of basketball, but considering the competition, the times, none were more dominant than Shaq.

Through it all, Shaq had a joyous, jubilant exterior, and a wounded, angry interior. For some reason, he always carried a lot of anger, a lot of resentment within him. He didn't always leave on good terms, and he didn't always care about a graceful exit. He would've loved to return to Los Angeles or Miami this season, but he destroyed his relationships there. Team owners Jerry Buss and Micky Arison spoke reverently about O'Neal upon his stated retirement on Wednesday, but those teams were never bringing him back as an elder statesman."