Shaquille O’Neal is the 5th all time scoring leader in NBA history but his career free throw percentage is 52%. He was in the 12th percentile of all NBA players in the 1999-00 season while scoring 29 points per game (the league leader that year made 95% of his free throws while scoring 12 points per game). To deny global warning based on one or two weather events would be like keeping Shaq out of the Basketball Hall of Fame just based on his free throw shooting. One needs to consider and act on all of the data before making a decision. I don’t know if NBA fans are as right wing (except Charles Barkley who once aspired to run for the GOP nomination for governor of Alabama) as some NFL fans like Rush Limbaugh are but we should all be able to agree that keeping Shaq out is wrong regardless of what we think of him as a person.
**Update**
Think Progress has reported how the billionaire Koch brother’s group American’s for Prosperity has bullied Congressional Republicans into publicly doubting climate change. Will Charles Barkley be bullied into opposing Shaq’s induction into the Hall of Fame?