As you're probably well aware of, Shaq is now officially a Cavalier. The thought, at least on the Cavs' end, is that Shaq is the missing piece to the puzzle that can help LeBron win a championship.

As Deadspin points out, Shaq in recent years has become a big-man gun-for-hire, teaming up with Dwyane Wade for a championship in Miami, and trying to help a Suns team before they fell off a cliff. But it hasn't always been this way.

Shaq was the man in Orlando, and for the majority of his tenure in LA, he was the man there as well. Those teams were built around him, they didn't bring him in as some kind of stop-gap. The three NBA championships Shaq won with the Lakers, he was unquestionably the best player on two of those teams, and probably equal to Kobe in the third and final one.

But since Kobe pushed Shaq out of LA (this was primarily Kobe's fault, you'll never be able to convince me otherwise), Shaq has been turned into the missing link to take a team over the hump, even though he clearly isn't the player he used to be.

When the Miami Heat won the NBA championship in 2006, it was clear Shaq was the difference in pushing them to it. But he wasn't the best player on the team. That was Dwyane Wade. And to anyone who knows anything about basketball, it'll be readily apparent that Shaq won't be the best player on the Cavs either. That's easily LeBron James.

So what are we to make of all this? And how does this define Shaq's legacy? Even if Shaq wins a championship with LeBron and the Cavs, do we start to view Shaq as the guy who simply hopped around teams later on in his career to grab some more rings?

I'm not really sure Shaq cares anymore at this point in time. At 37, I think he's highly aware that his best days are behind him. He's all right with not being the best player on the team, or even the first option, just so long as he can make a large enough difference to push that team to a championship. And truthfully, I think that shows a rather high level of maturity. Some players never can get over the fact that they are no longer as great as they once were. You wonder if players like Wade, Kobe and LeBron will ever be able to deal with being a second banana some day.

Personally, I'll remember Shaq as one of the greatest players I ever saw play, but also as a guy who was able to make a successful career transition as well - all while still remaining a huge draw for the NBA. That's not nearly as easy to do as you'd think. Should he have won more NBA championships than he has? Yes, if he and Kobe had stayed together, no question. But he's done well enough outside of that relationship that it's not really worth much debate anymore.

The only real question now is, can he win one more? I don't know, but it'll be interesting to watch.

Shaq: Best Big Man Ever Or Perpetual Second Banana? [Deadspin]