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Remember when the NBA said that Atlanta and Miami would replay the last minute or so of a game that Shaquille O'Neal had been wrongly disqualified from?

By far the most common email I have received this week has been along the lines of -- well now that O'Neal is no longer in Miami, what happens? Does O'Neal return to Miami for one game? (NO WAY! Are you crazy? Do you have any idea what kind of a paperwork and insurance nightmare that would be?) Can Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks play? 

A day ago, the Associated Press wrote a story wondering about that last question:

"The league doesn't know. They'll have to make a determination," Hawks general manager Billy Knight said Wednesday night.

The replay is necessary because the Hawks' official scorer ruled incorrectly that O'Neal fouled out of the game.

The Hawks won 117-111 in overtime. Play will start from the time after O'Neal's disputed sixth foul, with the Hawks leading 114-111.

Knight said NBA officials brought up the possibility of an O'Neal trade when they announced last month that the end of the game must be replayed. Knight said he was told be officials last month that a decision would have to be made about the eligibility of any new Miami players if there was a trade.

Today, the Atlanta Journal Constitution's Sekou Smith writes -- without identifyng a source -- that Marion and Banks will not be allowed to play for the minute-long game.

Marion and Banks should be allowed to play.

Here's why: it's not, as far as the standings are concerned, a contest between this or that player. It's a contest between the team called the Heat and the team called the Hawks.

All teams have fluctuating rosters throughout the season. That just happens. Sometimes the rosters are altered by suspensions, injuries, illness, trades, funerals ... that's just all kind of tough luck. In all other circumstances, whoever can play at game time is who gets to be considered the Miami Heat or the Atlanta Hawks that night. 

Think of it another way: what if the whole game had been re-scheduled? Not just the last minute. We'd have no debate at all. Of course Marion and Banks would play.

And my take is that the NBA was not saying that it wanted to recreate the exact circumstances of the previous game. The fact that O'Neal was integral to the protest was coincidencental. What the NBA wanted to do was throw out the last minute of a game that was undeniably bunk, as Miami was wrongly missing its big man. 

So, OK, throw it out. The only option is to have the Hawks and the Heat -- like in all NBA contests, players subject to availability -- play some other time. I say do that. Not some weird variation of it. A team with Jason Williams, Dwyane Wade etc., but no O'Neal and no Marion? I don't know what that team is, but it's not the Heat.