http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse...appening-without-shaq/
Heat-Hawks Game Replay Still Happening Without Shaq
Brett Edwards
Posted Feb 7th 2008 12:37PM by Brett Edwards
Filed under: Hawks, Heat, Suns
Hey so remember back in December when the Heat protested an overtime loss to the Hawks? No? Allow me to recap. Shaq was ruled by the scorers in Atlanta to have picked up his sixth foul with 51.9 seconds left and the Heat trailing by one, thus resulting in his disqualification. The problem was, Shaq only had five fouls at the time, and should have been allowed to remain in the game. The commissioner actually granted the protest, vacated the Hawks' win, and set it up for the teams to replay those final 51.9 seconds before their next full game on March 8.
Now that Shaq has been traded to the Phoenix Suns, it wouldn't make any sense for the league to continue with the replay, right? I mean, the whole thing revolved around the fact that Shaq should have been allowed to play out the game, and now he won't be around to do so. Well, be that as it may, the protested game will be replayed as planned, much to the dismay of Joe Johnson.
"As far as I'm concerned there's no reason to even bother with the replay," said Hawks captain and All-Star Joe Johnson. "If Shaq's not going to be here, what's the point?"
The Hawks won't be that lucky. Even without O'Neal, the replay will go on. But there are stipulations.
Neither Marion nor Banks will be allowed to play. But they will be allowed to play in the regularly scheduled game, which will begin after the replay is completed.
Again, the whole point of the replay was to allow Shaq to play in a game that he was wrongly disqualified from, but since he's now a member of the Suns, that won't happen. I say if they're going to do this, they should do it right. Trades be damned, both teams should have to play those final seconds with their December rosters intact. If the league's not willing to do that, then the game's original result should simply be reinstated.
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