O’Neal Comes Full Circle

By Cassie Harris
Love of Sports Correspondent

When I was in elementary school, we had to do this thing where we wrote a letter to our future selves in which we described how we hoped our future versions were staying out of trouble.

Apparently, you were supposed to get the letter back in your awkward teenage years and feel accomplished, because you became the person your young self wanted you to be (or guilty that you didn’t). I’m still waiting on that letter.

I wonder if Jermaine O’Neal did a similar exercise in his youth.

See, he too is being confronted by the person his young self could have been in the future — strangely enough, it’s his own teammate.

Chris Bosh has done pretty much everything right in his young career from day one. He’s a likeable guy, an Olympic gold medalist and an undeniably great player who works hard on his game and improves every season. If he hasn’t qualified to be called a superstar yet, he certainly is on the cusp of achieving that title.

For a while, it looked like O’Neal was going to be that guy. After a relatively slow start to his career with the Trailblazers, he began to flourish with the Pacers, showing a great deal of promise if only he’d continue to mature. Derailed by injuries, a questionable commitment level and a declining team state in Indiana, he’s been MIA through what is usually the prime of one’s career. Now it seems like the last significant thing he did was a sliding Liu Kang on a fan during the infamous brawl at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

Just to make you feel old, it should be pointed out O’Neal recently turned 30 years of age. It seems like only yesterday he was awkwardly sandwiched between Detlef Schrempf and Arvydas Sabonis on the bench in Portland. Yeah, he’s still younger than Greg Oden, but it still seems like he hasn’t been around as long as he has.

When O’Neal suits up for the Raptors this season it won’t only begin a new chapter in his career, but could rewrite a previous one. Sometimes things go sour for a player with an organization — he doesn’t say the right things, the results aren’t there, fans decide they hate him — it happens all the time in sports. His run with the Pacers is just another one of these cases.

In Indiana he didn’t become the player people expected him to become, but in Toronto he doesn’t have to — that role’s already been cast.

Now, in somewhat of a supporting role, O’Neal won’t have to face the same pressures he faced as the No. 1 option in Indy. He won’t have to answer questions about his leadership ability and his character, and that can only benefit his play.

Once upon a time, Jermaine O’Neal could have been Chris Bosh. Today, his game gets to feed off his own past potential. If he did pen a letter back in the day, it will pay dividends for the Raptors this season.

They’re on the Bandwagon. Are you?