NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: PISTONS v HEAT

June 6, 2005

Shaquille O'Neal

SHAQUILLE O'NEAL: Yeah, we still had an opportunity to win. Just maybe they had more experience than we did and the guys have to realize that before you succeed, you must first -- I don't think anybody expected us to get this far, but, you know, we had a lot of opportunities to get it done, but we're not going to make it. We just had a phenomenal season. Everybody fought. Guys played well. We almost had it.

SHAQUILLE O'NEAL: If you don't win the whole thing, nobody is going to remember us winning and sweeping. We had a lot of opportunities to win this thing, but we just made too many mistakes. I just think they had a little bit more experience, but guys played well and we almost had it. We just have to go out and play. We had a lot of opportunities to get it done and we just fell short.

SHAQUILLE O'NEAL: He was very hurt but he came out and he played and he gave us all he got. He gave us all he had. We're the type of players and we're the type of team that we're not going to make up excuses. We're going to dwell on this and then move on to next year.

SHAQUILLE O'NEAL: We had the lead in the fourth, but they had more defense and hustle and got to the ball.