Shaquille O'Neal's Autobiography

Paully D

Any of you read this? I picked it up after it was recommended to me on here by Buyer 95 (if I remember correctly) and finished it in a day. I thought it was a great read.

Some very interesting stories, especially about how he credits his fathers discipline (beatings) for steering him in the right direction, to the sports based stories about Kobe, Pat Riley, LeBron etc.

He's a fascinating character really.

Here's a couple of bits taken from the book for those interested.

Kobe:

So I'm on edge because I don't have a new deal, and Kobe is on edge because he might be going to jail, so we're taking it out on each other. Just before the start of the '03-'04 season the coaching staff called us in and said, "No more public sparring or you'll get fined." ... Phil was tired of it. Karl Malone and Gary Payton were sick of it. ... So what happens? Immediately after that Kobe runs right out to Jim Gray and does this interview where he lets me have it. He said I was fat and out of shape. He said I was milking my toe injury for more time off, and the injury wasn't even that serious. (Yeah, right. It only ended my damn career.) He said I was "lobbying for a contract extension when we have two Hall of Famers playing pretty much for free." I'm sitting there watching this interview and I'm gonna explode. Hours earlier we had just promised our coach we'd stop. It was a truce broken. I let the guys know, "I'm going to kill him."

obe stands up and goes face-to-face with me and says, "You always said you're my big brother, you'd do anything for me, and then this Colorado thing happens and you never even called me." I did call him. ... So here we are now, and we find out he really was hurt that we didn't stand behind him. That was something new. I didn't think he gave a rat's ass about us either way. "Well, I thought you'd publicly support me, at least," Kobe said. "You're supposed to be my friend." Brian Shaw chimed in with "Kobe, why would you think that? Shaq had all these parties and you never showed up for any of them. We invited you to dinner on the road and you didn't come. Shaq invited you to his wedding and you weren't there. Then you got married and didn't invite any of us. And now you are in the middle of this problem, this sensitive situation, and now you want all of us to step up for you. We don't even know you." ... Everyone was starting to calm down when I told Kobe, "If you ever say anything like what you said to Jim Gray ever again, I will kill you." Kobe shrugged and said, "Whatever." [...] From that day on, I was done dealing with Kobe. I was done dealing with Jim Gray, too. What goes around, comes around. When he got fired, he actually had the nerve to call me and ask me to help him out. What, did you lose Kobe's number?

Pat Riley:

“My ticket out of Miami was punched in mid-February 2008. There was a lot of tension between Pat and the players. So we’re about to start practice and Jason Williams comes in about ten seconds late. Pat being Pat, he starts swearing at him and screaming, “Get the hell out of here!” . . .

“I tell Pat we’re a team and we need to stick together, not throw guys out of the gym. Pat is screaming at me and says if I don’t like it, then I should get the hell out of practice, too.

“That’s when I said, ‘Why don’t you make me?’

“I start taking a couple of steps towards Pat. Udonis Haslem steps in and I shove him out of the way. Then Zo tries to grab me. I threw him aside like he was a rag doll. Now it’s me and Riley face-to-face, jaw to jaw. I’m poking him in the chest and he keeps slapping my finger away and it’s getting nasty. Noisy, too. He’s yelling ‘(Expletive!)’ and I’m yelling back, ‘No, (expletive!)’

“Zo is trying to calm us both down and he has this kind of singsong panic in his voice. He keeps saying, ‘Big fella, no big fella, big fella!’ I finally turn around and tell him, ‘Don’t worry, I’m not going to hit the man. Do you think I’m crazy?’

LeBron:

LeBron was a huge star. He was as big as I was in 2000 in L.A. when I was dominating the league. ... Our coach, Mike Brown, was a nice guy, but he had to live on edge because nobody was supposed to be confrontational with LeBron. Nobody wanted him to leave Cleveland, so he was allowed to do whatever he wanted to do. I remember one day in a film session LeBron didn't get back on defense after a missed shot. Mike Brown didn't say anything about it. He went to the next clip and it was Mo Williams not getting back and Mike was saying, "Yo, Mo, we can't have that. You've got to hustle a little more." So Delonte West is sitting there and he's seen enough and he stands up and says, "Hold up, now. You can't be pussyfooting around like that. Everyone has to be accountable for what they do, not just some us." Mike Brown said, "I know, Delonte. I know." Mike knew Delonte was right. ... I'm not sure if Kobe is going to listen to Mike Brown. LeBron never really did. Here's what we do know: Kobe will definitely be in charge.

To be fair when speaking about LeBron he's also very complimentary about him but I can't find any of that in the snippets on the internet and I'm too lazy to type it in myself :pac:

There's far more in it that just the above though. He obviously talks in depth about his childhood, his college days at LSU, and his time at other teams such as Phoenix and Boston, which includes an interesting theory that Garnett and Shaq have about how a joke that President Obama made about Rondo's shooting had a big effect on his shooting and confidence for a long time.

Overall it's definitely worth a read.

padraig_f

Just before the start of the '03-'04 season the coaching staff called us in and said, "No more public sparring or you'll get fined." ... Phil was tired of it. Karl Malone and Gary Payton were sick of it. ... So what happens? Immediately after that Kobe runs right out to Jim Gray and does this interview where he lets me have it. He said I was fat and out of shape. He said I was milking my toe injury for more time off, and the injury wasn't even that serious.

That's pretty funny.

I'm not sure if Kobe is going to listen to Mike Brown. LeBron never really did. Here's what we do know: Kobe will definitely be in charge.

Kobe and Mike Brown seem to have a pretty good relationship. But I did find it quite funny watching some game at the end of the season when Kobe was out injured. He turns up wearing an immaculate suit, and he's dug out Phil Jackson's old high-chair to sit on. During timeouts he's on the floor giving pep talks to players, and he has the clipboard out at one stage as well, like he was drawing up plays. Mike Brown was looking more like the assistant coach. ****ing hilarious.

Andy Magic

The guys a legend

buyer95

Glad to hear you liked, definitely a worthwhile read for any Basketball lovers

Carcharodon

Just read it there over the last few days, it is pretty simplistic and a light read at best but enjoyable non the less considering its Shaq and gives us a little bit of insight into parts of the NBA.

I think the 'Uncut' part may not be entirely true but he does seem pretty honest in it and extremely confident as always.