Word: shaq
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...Antonio, Texas, to get the autograph of his favorite player, center Hakeem ("the Dream") Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets. It was the first time that the 16-year-old O'Neal had met Olajuwon, who was 26 at the time. "I was just a kid then," says Shaq, "with no money, no clothes, no car, no nothing." Olajuwon obliged, as he almost always does, and Shaq has kept the autograph to this...
...most of Game 1 on Wednesday, Shaq fought Hakeem to a standoff, but with just 0.3 sec. left in the first overtime, Olajuwon tipped in a shot to give himself 31 points and the Rockets a 120-118 win. In Friday's Game 2, the 32-year-old center outplayed his larger, younger counterpart for most of the game, which the Rockets took, 117-106. Olajuwon had 22 points in the first half alone, as Houston built an insurmountable lead, and he finished the night with 34 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks...
...matchup between the Big Os was almost enough to block out all the dancing girls, jumping boys, fireworks, laser lights, eardrum-pounding music and halftime motocrosses that are part of the show in Orlando. The Dream vs. Shaq is the present vs. the future, bop vs. rap, ballet vs. the World Wrestling Federation, humility vs. bravado, Mecca vs. Madison Avenue. It is also a game, as O'Neal...
What was missing from that cover, of course, was a baseball player. Not that evidence needs to be marshalled to prove that baseball no longer holds the top place in the pantheon of sport--just ask any fourth grader who he wants to be like, and after Jordan, Barkley, Shaq, a couple of football or hockey players, and maybe even a random tennis player, the nine-year-old might say Ken Griffey, Jr. or Barry Bonds or another diamond king. (Maybe this example is a slight exaggeration, but I believe it's substantively true...
...Shaq becomes a more mediocre player, he will be laughed at for his hubris-filled hobbies. And when that day comes--and sometime it will--the legend of Shaq Fu will not continue...