Shaquille O'Neal doesn't worry about earthlings
MSG's Jill Martin - from Plainview, by the way - scored a sit-down Saturday with Shaquille O'Neal, whom she knows from her days in Miami.
The interview veered into some Darryl Dawkins/Lovetron-like directions. Some highlights, provided by MSG:
Does it get to you when people question your drive or your
ability to dominate on the court?
"It doesn't get to me because I know I am the most dominant 35-and-older center . . . It doesn't get to me because there is no one that does it better and there is no one who has done more than me in my career, especially among active players . . . So I don't worry about what earthlings say."
Because you're not one?
"That's right, because I'm not from this planet; I am from a vulgar planet that I can't say right now . . . " (laughing)
You do joke about your age but for a 35-year-old do you feel you're as good as you could be?
"I'm not doing the same things I was doing at 24 or 25. That's just called age. But I can still put up big numbers and win games and lead my team to many, many victories . . . We all get old, and we all start fading away, but I came in peacefully and I am going to leave the game peacefully, not really concerned about what anyone says."
You've always said that winning a fifth championship is so important. Why?
"For me, personal-wise, I would like to be in the same breathora as the Magic Johnsons and Michael Jordans. What I mean by breathora, right now if someone says, 'Michael has six, Magic has five, Shaq has four,' you have to change the breathora. I want it to be, 'Michael has six, Magic got five, Shaq got five,' so it would be in the same conversational breathorous pattern when they speak of my name.''
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