Shaquille O'Neal is not about to slow down in regards to being in the headlines, not by a long shot. On Nov. 15, he's set to release an autobiography titled "Shaq Uncut: My Story." The book chronicles O'Neal's life from his childhood to retirement and is expected to be a good source of inside, behind-the-scenes dishing about the teams and players he's been around throughout his career. The book will talk about, among other things, his relationship with Dwight Howard, his feud with Kobe Bryant and also his time with the Cleveland Cavaliers and LeBron James.
That last bit is the juicy part, at least by our reckoning. O'Neal talks about how James was supposedly given a very, very long leash by the Cleveland coaching staff. He mentions that James was given special treatment above any other player he's seen before, giving specific examples to times when James was excused from making errors and mental mistakes.
HOOPSWORLD has some good excerpts, emphasis mine:
LeBron was a huge star. He was as big as I was in 2000 in L.A. when I was dominating the league. ... Our coach, Mike Brown, was a nice guy, but he had to live on edge because nobody was supposed to be confrontational with LeBron. Nobody wanted him to leave Cleveland, so he was allowed to do whatever he wanted to do.
There's more excerpts to check out at that link, it's pretty telling stuff regarding LeBron's treatment in Cleveland. One excerpt talks about how LeBron made an error by not getting back on defense, but the team glossed over it during film study, but Mike Brown got on Mo Williams about the very same thing on the next play. Shaq talks about how he wasn't hard on LeBron like he was other young stars, as well. At the very least, it's promising to be a good read and might provide a laugh or two.