Even with Shaq, the Suns’ day is over

Thanks for the memories, Suns.

Or maybe that Shaquille O’Neal deal really wasn’t such a good idea.

Not that all us skeptics were saying that when they won 15 of their last 20 and ran over the Spurs in San Antonio and Coach Gregg Popovich said they were the hottest team in the West.

The wily Popovich just pulled off the magic trick of a career that includes four titles, but he wasn’t lying in the weeds.

Even as the Spurs finished off the Suns on Tuesday, he continued to show the toll the season took on him, giving TNT sideline reporter David Aldridge a withering look for asking who would get it done if struggling Manu Ginobili couldn’t.

“Somebody, I hope,” said Popovich, turning on his heel to rejoin his team, shaking his head.

Here’s the bottom line:

The trade did work as the Suns proved again, leading by 16 points in Game 1 and by 14 in Game 2 in San Antonio … before the Spurs stole both back.

(They did it by hacking Shaq, who went 32 for 64 from the free-throw line, but that’s an abomination for another day.)

The problem was, the trade just didn’t work well enough.

That was the real quandary. O’Neal could make them bigger, better defensively (which was a long way from good with O’Neal letting Tony Parker turn the corner on 100% of the 50 or so pick-and-rolls they ran at him nightly) and bring Amare Stoudemire in line …

And with all O’Neal did, it still might not get the Suns over the top in the West.

As it turned out, it didn’t even get them out of the first round in the West.

Worst of all, with so many young powers on the rise (Lakers, Hornets, Jazz, Trail Blazers), the Suns, like the Mavericks who traded for Jason Kidd, just got a lot older.

Oh, and there goes the neighborhood.

SI.com’s Jack McCallum, who spent a year with the Suns writing a book, just reported that Mike D’Antoni is leaving on his own initiative.

Another D’Antoni intimate says the entire staff will be Toronto-bound to work for their old GM, Bryan Colangelo, if he can get ownership to fire Sam Mitchell, who has $10 million coming.

Choice No. 2: Chicago, which is desperate and has a Suns-style roster (well, if you squint enough for Kirk Hinrich and Luol Deng to look like Steve Nash and Stoudemire.)

Then there are the Knicks, taking their coach search slowly to see if D’Antoni, Mitchell or Detroit’s Flip Saunders becomes available. Dallas’ Avery Johnson was made available Tuesday when the Mavericks fired him.

It has been apparent all along that the Suns’ new president, Steve Kerr, and D’Antoni have never been on the same page.

However, this was only the last act in the split between the old owner, Jerry Colangelo, and the new owner, Robert Sarver, who let Colangelo’s son, Bryan, leave and won’t hold a wake to grieve for D’Antoni.

On the other hand, no matter what it looks like, this was not about Kerr and D’Antoni splitting over O’Neal.

Like many people, I speculated that D’Antoni opposed the trade behind the scenes. Aside from the fact that a Phoenix insider said that was the case, D’Antoni had created the fast-paced offense they were abandoning and kept saying that they might have won a title with it.

It just wasn’t true. D’Antoni wasn’t faking his enthusiasm. He not only didn’t oppose the move, he was all for it.

The proposal originally came in through Sarver, who got a call from Miami owner Mickey Arison, and was all in favor of it.

However, I later learned D’Antoni was even more in favor than Kerr, who had watched all the video he could find of O’Neal in Miami, which wasn’t inspiring.

D’Antoni and Nash were both up to here with Shawn Marion’s attitude, which was affecting Stoudemire’s attitude.

Also, in retrospect, it’s possible that with D’Antoni already leery of the way things were going – it was his job as head of the basketball operation that Kerr had assumed – he figured, why not take a shot?

For the answer to that question, just look around.

The franchise is still there, but the game’s fastest-paced, highest-scoring, most entertaining team is no more.

mark.heisler@latimes.com