In regard to the Suns success in the post-season, cold and timid souls can rationalize the acquisition of Shaquille O’Neal and take a cowardly “wait-and-see” attitude before declaring Steve Kerr and Mike D’Antoni did the right thing, but you, sir, are a critic and not a “doer of deeds.”

With Shaq, the Suns are better prepared to experience success in the playoffs than they were with Shawn Marion.

If you disagree, stop reading but know this: your argument will appear in the next Non-Sequitur.

If you agree, let us continue.

The only guarantee in life is that you will not be here one day. But unlike life, there are no guarantees in athletic competition. A man can strive, “valiantly,” but he knows failure lurks and hides in reality’s clutch and in the shadows of his own thoughts and doubts.

In head-to-head competition, all men can do to increase their odds of success is to do whatever they can to get better, individually and as a team. This is all one can ask of a human.

But just because you get better – individually and collectively – it does not guarantee success. If it did, there would be no Las Vegas. There are no guarantees.

Whether or not the Suns succeed in the “second-season” of the NBA playoffs, Steve Kerr and Mike D’Antoni girded their loins and did the hard thing: they dared to get better and I salute them.

These men were roundly blasted by the national media for trading Shawn Marion for Shaquille O’Neal. The arguments, one way or the other, are old and tired but what they did wasn’t. What they did was courageous, audacious, bold, even Spartan. They cared little for the critic’s voice and what they would say. They did while others chirped.

And they were right. Shaq has made the Suns a better playoff team. The Suns have increased their odds of success in the post-season because of the Marion/Shaq trade.

And don’t talk to me about the salary-cap implications and paying Shaq $20-million over the next 2-seasons. Professional sports teams play to win championships – hopefully – not manage their cap space. Would you trade an NBA Championship for a well balanced, well contrived salary cap?

Of course you would. It is intellectually disingenuous to suggest otherwise.

You cannot have it both ways and still be counted a Spartan or a rational human being. Either Shaq gives the Suns a better chance at winning an NBA title or the salary-cap is more important than a ring.

The Suns cannot guarantee a championship in the world of athletic competition. Things happen and players aren’t programmed like computers. All they can do is try to improve their chances of winning an NBA title. Shaq has done this.

If the Suns don’t win a title, the “I told you so” crowd will pound their chest and call Kerr and D’Antoni “stupid” for making the Shaq trade. And in this bottom-line world they’ll be right, but they won’t be honorable.