Cleveland throws big party to welcome Shaq

Fashionably late, O'Neal arrived at 11:15 p.m. as fans, one of them holding a life-size cardboard cutout of O'Neal in an Orlando Magic uniform, cheered on the sidewalks and took pictures of the town's newest superstar,

O'Neal has had a good first impression of Cleveland, where he'll join the NBA's reigning most valuable player LeBron James.

“It's a nice town,” he said. “The entertainment is already here. Everything is here. The Browns are here, LeBron is here and now I'm here.”

The 37-year-old O'Neal was acquired by the Cavaliers in June, shortly after the team was eliminated by Orlando in the Eastern Conference playoffs. The Cavs, who open camp Monday, think he is the missing piece to help James win his first title — and Cleveland's first in a major sport since 1964.

The Cavs won 66 games in the regular season, 10 in the playoffs and still came up short last season.

With O'Neal, there are no more excuses.

“I'm settling into a damn good team, so the sky is the limit for us,” said O'Neal, who has spent the past week working out with James and other players at the Cavs' training facility.

Former Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar, boxing champion Kelly Pavlik, Cleveland Browns return specialist Joshua Cribbs, several members of the Cleveland Indians, Olympic gold medalist Dominique Moceanu and former Cavs star Austin Carr walked the red carpet at Sunday's party before Shaq arrived.

Kosar joked that the Browns could use the 7-foot-1, 325-pound O'Neal.

“I know he'd be great in the scoring zone,” Kosar said. “I'd love to lob it up to him.”

Along with its fair share of sports heartache in the past few decades, Cleveland has been hard hit by the economic recession. Kosar said O'Neal's arrival is a boon to basketball and the region.

“The NBA has become the haves and the have-nots,” Kosar said. “We've been lucky that Cavs owner Dan Gilbert has made Cleveland one of the league's top franchises and Shaq makes us even better.”

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