It's fair to be skeptical about a Shaq/Celtics marriage. 

The Celtics, after all, are team No. 6 for Shaquille O'Neal, and there are a few reasons why a four-time NBA champ and three-time Finals MVP has moved very close to journeyman status. There's the obvious -- he's 38 years old and in decline and NBA centers in their mid-30s don't sign four and five year deals -- and then there is what I call the Uncle Rico Factor.

It's been hard over the last few years for Shaq to accept that it isn't 1998. Sure, he said all the right things when he arrived in Phoenix and Cleveland, but it just didn't seem that he was ready to accept the idea that he isn't a 25-12 machine anymore. And once he realized that the Suns and Cavs (and the Heat) weren't going to treat him like SHAQ he started to make some noise and move on. 

There's been a pattern here. Always the last team's fault. They didn't "get" Shaq, didn't understand what he brings to a team. 

So when it was announced that Shaq signed with the Celtics it seemed that the consensus was this: Great move for the price ($3 million for two years) but is there any chance that Shaq will be comfortable as Just Another Guy? 

Well, if Tuesday's press conference was Test No. 1 to see if Shaquille O'Neal is ready to put away the cape (superheroes don't split time with Kendrick Perkins) and accept a new role, he passed with ease.

"This was a good team with or without me," said O'Neal, with Doc Rivers seated to his left. "I don't mind playing a role. I know where I am at this point in my career."

And that was what you got from Shaq pretty much throughout his hello to Boston session Tuesday. Sure, there was the inevitable nickname stuff (he prefers The Big Shamrock) and a question about his ABC show (first Boston challenge? A clam chowder eat-off with Big Baby Davis) but the overwhelming theme of the presser was this: Shaq just wants to win. If that means backing up Perkins or Jermaine O'Neal, swell. If that means helping Ed Lacerte tape some ankles, no problem. This wasn't the same guy that shot a water gun at fans in Miami and tormented GM Danny Ferry in Cleveland during his introductory press conferences with those teams. 

Nope, this was a study in (gasp) humility. Maybe the league-wide yawn to Shaq as a free agent this offseason played a factor. Maybe it was signing for the veteran's minimum that provided a blast of reality. What it was, this was a different Shaq on the podium. Quiet, reserved, and plenty deferential.

"I know they [The Celtics] sacrifice and play well together," the future Hall of Famer said. "The way I look at it is I have 730 days left in this game. I want to play together and play to win."

The 345-pound (we'll go with it) center went out of his way on more than one occasion to praise Doc Rivers, and it sure seems that if Doc had decided to leave the Celtics there would've been no Shaq signing. Rivers, though, is more than aware of what has happened with Shaq in the past and has zero intention of letting history repeat in Boston.

"This has to be about the Celtics and it has to be winning," said Rivers after the press conference. "I was very honest with him and that’s why he’s here. 

I told him there was not 30 minutes on this team. There will be 20-25 minutes. I asked him if that was OK because that’s the only way it will work. We talked about coming off the bench. It’s very important when you get a guy like Shaq to be up front and honest and tell him where you see he’ll be. If he can accept that he’ll fit our mold."

And that's the best argument for this turning out OK. Doc and Danny and Garnett and Pierce and Allen aren't going to be intimidated by Shaq if he starts pulling the stuff he did in Phoenix and Miami and Cleveland. It's nice he's in Boston, but they don't really need him. 

"He [O'Neal] was traded for a 20-and-10 guy in Shawn Marion into a pretty good situation and expectations were high for him to play a major role," Danny Ainge said Tuesday. "Our expectations are not that. We expect him to play a role off our bench."

There. It's all in Shaq's court, so to speak. His head coach and GM have made it clear. Fit the mold, off the bench, low expectations. Words never associated with the Shaq of old. There can be no blaming the Celtics if it goes sour and Shaq lands somewhere else in a year or two. He walked into this with his eyes wide open. But that doesn't change this question, of course. It's easy to be fine with the Lion In Winter role on August 10, but what's going to happen if Shaq plays nine minutes in a playoff loss to the Heat? When there are 56 cameras pointed in his face that June night will we still be hearing "It's a good fit" and stories about Bill Russell? 

Or will it be the return of The Big Distraction?

For now, all we know is this: Shaq is saying all the right things.

"I've done everything individually that I've set out to do," he said. "Now, toward the latter part of my career, it's all about winning."

We'll just have to wait and see.