Heat's O'Neal hopes good health will recapture the good times

The black ink on Jermaine O'Neal's right arm, just below the shoulder, displays a menacing superhero type of character, crouched and springing forward. It is surrounded by the words "The Year of the Resurrection," a proud proclamation of impending renewal.

In a career that runneth over with resurrections, the theme is as appropriate now as ever as O'Neal enters his 14th NBA season. Can someone win the Most Improved Player twice in one career? O'Neal could be a candidate this season, and it will need to happen for Miami to be heard in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

"He makes a ton of difference," Heat forward Udonis Haslem said after O'Neal turned in an efficient and energetic performance against his former team, the Pacers, last week. "Anytime you can have an inside presence it makes everybody better, even Dwyane."

That's "Dwyane" as in Wade, the Heat superstar who needs a difference-making big man to balance his perimeter magic.

"The work he put in this summer is coming through," Wade said of O'Neal.

Back in the summer of 1999, three years after Portland had made him the 17th pick in the draft, O'Neal made his primary statement with that tattoo. He had endured three mostly sedentary seasons while backing up Rasheed Wallace and Brian Grant, but the franchise reiterated its faith by signing him to a four-year contract worth $24 million. O'Neal was so confident the next season would bring his breakthrough that he put it in writing, ink on flesh. But it didn't happen. He averaged 3.9 points in his fourth season, less than he did as a rookie.

The resurrection -- the first one, anyway -- finally came in his fifth season, after a trade to the Pacers, when he started and averaged 12.9 points. Further revival came the following season when he averaged 19 points and a career-high 10.5 rebounds and was voted the Most Improved Player in 2002. Two years later he was still blossoming, a second-team all-NBA selection who finished third in the MVP voting after averaging 20.1 points and 10 rebounds on a 61-win team that reached the conference finals.

O'Neal at that time was one of the best and still most promising big men in the league. He was on track to become an Olympian. He was in the midst of six consecutive All-Star selections, one more than Pacers legend Reggie Miller achieved in an 18-year career. His greatness as a player and community-minded citizen seemed summarized by the few days in January, 2005, when he scored 55 points against Milwaukee and then announced two days later he was donating $1,000 for each of those points to the victims of the Thailand tsunami.

But then it happened. Exactly what happened was complicated and glacier gradual, but O'Neal not only lost his place among the league's elite big men, he lost the trust of Pacers fans. After playing at least 72 games in his first four seasons with the franchise, he played just 44 games in 2004-05 (missing 15 because of his role in the brawl at the Palace of Auburn Hills) and then 51, 69 and 42.

Beyond that, his health became a constant source of drama. Some fans and media members had the impression he milked each sprain and strain for maximum effect. Some mornings he said he wouldn't play that night, but did. Other mornings he said he would play, but didn't.