NBA superstars LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal became teammates when the Cleveland Cavaliers completed a blockbuster trade for O'Neal from the Phoenix Suns on Thursday. The Cavaliers hope they are creating a basketball duo with the drawing power of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – or even Shaq and Kobe Bryant. Each of those pairs won multiple NBA titles. The Cavaliers would settle for their first. The Cavaliers are sending center Ben Wallace and Serbian swingman Sasha Pavlovic to the Suns, along with a second-round pick in the 2010 draft and cash. “It is a really unique and rare opportunity to bring in a player of Shaq's caliber. We are excited to see how his presence, experience and play positively impacts our team,” Cavaliers general manager Danny Ferry said. O'Neal has won four championships during his 17-year career – three as member of the Los Angeles Lakers with Bryant and one in Miami with Dwyane Wade – and will now try to get yet another with James, the league's reigning MVP, who is missing only an NBA title from his personal resume. The trade is a gamble for the Cavaliers. They are hoping that the 37-year-old O'Neal, who is past his prime and has one year and $21 million left on his contract, can be the missing piece that helps James deliver his first championship to a city that has waited since 1964 for one of its NBA, NFL or Major League Baseball teams to win it all. “This move and our goals are aligned with what our players want, including LeBron, to win a championship and win it this year,” Ferry said. “We don't want to be patient.” For sheer star power, the O'Neal-James tandem rivals any on the American sports landscape. But it could also be a one-year gambit. The Cavaliers' urgency to win a title is greater than ever with James entering his final season before he can opt out of his contract. The 24-year-old came up short this season and stormed off the floor after being eliminated in Orlando without shaking hands with any of the Magic players, including Howard, his US Olympic teammate. Elsewhere, the Washington Wizards have traded the number five pick in Thursday's draft and three players to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Mike Miller and Randy Foye. In addition to the pick the Timberwolves acquired reserves Etan Thomas, Darius Songaila and Oleksiy Pecherov, the Wizards said on Wednesday. Chinese All Star center Yao Ming, meanwhile, has not recovered from his broken foot and is out indefinitely, the Houston Rockets said on Wednesday. Yao underwent a medical evaluation for a fractured left foot and the tests revealed that the injury had not responded to treatment.
