Shaquille O'Neal Announces His Retirement Via Twitter

After 19 seasons in the NBA, Shaquille O'Neal announced via Twitter on Wednesday that he was calling it quits.

"We did it," he said in a video released via his Twitter account. "19 years, baby. I want to thank you very much. That's why I'm telling you first that I'm about to retire."

In what is certain to be a Hall of Fame career, Shaq accumulated a long list of accomplishments, including playing on four NBA title teams and winning three NBA Finals MVP awards. He was named the league's Most Valuable Player in 2000 and appeared in 15 All-Star games.

In recent seasons, injuries and age slowed The Diesel. In the past two seasons, O'Neal played in a combined 90 games (including just 37 games this year with the Boston Celtics) with his scoring and rebounding numbers well below his career averages.

But O'Neal was about much more than just basketball. With his enormous physique and even larger personality, Shaq was about as engaging a personality as the NBA has seen in years. The league and its fans will certainly miss him.

Charlie Villanueva Threatens To Kill Ryan Hollins (Video)

For a game that had no meaning whatsoever, Charlie Villanueva got awfully heated on Monday night.

The Detroit Pistons forward tangled with the Cavaliers' Ryan Hollins late in Monday's game at the Palace. Once it looked like things were calming down, Villanueva again went after Hollins, but was restrained by Rodney Stuckey and team security.

Except that wasn't the end of it, according to the Detroit Free Press.

But later, Villanueva attempted to get to the Cavs locker room, only to be restrained by Auburn Hills police.

As he was escorted back to the Pistons locker room, Villanueva muttered, “I will kill that dude. I don’t give a (expletive).”

It's not a good look anytime of year, but Villanueva's timing was particularly bad because presumptive new Pistons owner Tom Gores was in the house. The next step will be waiting on the league office to hand out some punishment. With neither team making playoff plans any suspensions will likely take effect next season.

Tuesday's Birthday Shout-Out: The (Mark) Price is Right

After Ray Allen broke the NBA record for most three-pointers made in a career last week, it spawned a national discussion about who the best shooters in NBA history were.

One name that didn't get a lot of attention was Mark Price. Injuries prevented him from being a lot higher in NBA record books than he likely could have been, nonetheless, Price was one of the league's purest shooters for a very long time. A two-time winner of the three-point contest, Price was a career 40.2% shooter from beyond the arc and has since taken to helping current NBA players improve their shooting stroke.

But apparently that wasn't exciting enough to make it into this early '90s NBA music video soundtracked by Soul Asylum. Then again, since the song wasn't really going to fire anybody up, you probably would need to spice up the highlights a bit. Instead we're left with a montage that gives you the impression that Price was a Steve Nash prequel.

Tuesday's Birthday Shout-Out: How Chris Mills Got His Groove Back

Thanks to Chris Mills, you all get a special treat...namely an early addition to the New Era Radio playlist.

Last week, Jason Kidd helped us relive B-Ball's Best Kept Secret. Today, in honor 10-year NBA veteran Chris Mills' birthday, we proudly present another track from that same hip-hop classic album. Introducing "Sumptin to Groove To".

Sounding a touch like something from a Black Moon album, Chris lets us all know that he's a "fly girl layer". Not sure if that means he associates with attractive women in general or has carnal knowledge of one of Keenan Ivory Wayans former dancers.

Actually, the track ends up being a lot like his career. Starts with great potential, shows signs of going to the next level, but ends up being pretty mediocre. Either way, it's still better than the awful uniform he was forced to wear during his time in Cleveland.