Shaquille O'Neal Quotes

I don't know how it is for you earthlings, but where I'm from, strength is mental.

Opinions are like belly buttons; everybody has one. I never knock a man for his opinion.

I'm still the Dun Dada of all big men.

Going from Army base to base as a kid taught me to be a man of all nations. I'd go to the Jewish people and say, 'Shalom, brother.' I go to the Muslim people and say, 'Salaam aleikum.'I go to the Chinese people and say, 'Nee hao mah,' which means, 'How you doin'?' I go to the Japanese people and say, 'Konnichiwa.' I go to San Antonio, Texas, and I get along with Mexicans. Then I go to Louisiana and hang with the Creoles. Moving around a lot made me a man of all people.

Thank God I had two parents who loved me enough to stay on my case.

Why did it happen? The big dog got fed. And when the big dog was fed, the little dog even got some meat in there, too. Big dog owns the domain, but the little dog can go wherever he wants.

It's pretty much the same; it's just that Phil was very weird with his system. This is more of the traditional system.

As a military child I first learned how to deal with different types of people and how to deal with order.

Since I suffered the injury on company time, why shouldn't I also be able to get surgery and do recovery on company time?

Now, the mistakes that I made with my other two sons, Penny and Kobe, I won't make with D-Wade. We can't let them break us up and we can't break each other up.

It feels good. It's not bad for somebody who can't shoot.

Keep in mind, I'm not allowed to be tough. I'm tamed.

I'm always ready for a change. I'm Irish. I'm a leprechaun.

I think the new ball is terrible. It's the worst decision some expert, whoever did it, made. It's terrible. It's like touching an exotic dancer and then going and touching a plastic blow-up doll. You know, it feels different.

It was a cheap shot. They won the game, move on. My thing is, I don't ask for a lot, but I demand my respect, especially from a guy like that.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, bet you can't type that.

They shot the ball well early. What comes out of the microwave hot doesn't always stay hot. I know, because I eat bagels in the morning.

But that is the only thing that slows me down is the system. No one, two or three was big enough to slow me down, only the system. It was the system that slowed me down to make my numbers fall. Not because I am older.

We're focusing on the whole pie, not a slice. A slice is good, but it's not good enough to get you fat. We're trying to get fat.

Can I go one day without somebody saying something negative about me?

Let's put it in old movie Mafia terms. There are guys that are in position to get by but they didn't wait their turn. They back-doored the top guy to get the power. For example, Sonny Corleone went up there, and he wanted to be the top guy. And the Godfather said, 'You know what dude, I'm a star.' That's what I'm doing now, and that's what I was trying to do with what's-his-name.

I'm still the baddest expletive in the world. Yeah, I'm getting older, but Kareem got older. Hakeem got older. I don't need Earthlings' respect. When it's all said and done, my name will be there and it will be mentioned ... unless you Earthlings try to erase it.

If you don't like me, there must be something wrong with you.

I'm a season kind of guy - not the preseason but the regular season.

One time, I put up 40, 50 points dunking on Shawn Bradley. After the game, he brought his family over. He was like, 'This is my wife. She wants to take a picture.' I'm like, 'Nice to meet you.' I smile into the camera, take the picture, and then feel guilty about dunking on him so many times.

I'm getting older. I'm getting sexier. I'm getting meaner. I can still do what I do.

Nietzsche was so intelligent and advanced. And that's how I am. I'm the black, basketball-playing Nietzsche.

Talk to the guys that ain't doing nothing, don't talk to me. I just want eight guys out there with me who want to play.

You like that analogy? That was pretty good?

I'm probably going to have to go with Kobester. He's an assassin with LeBron coming right after.

Why aren't the Nets playing in Newark?

I don't know. I don't have a fax machine, so I didn't get that message.

The two top teams with nice weather and nice people were Dallas and Miami. Of course, the Lakers wouldn't want to trade me in the same conference, so Miami was perfect.

I told my wife the other day, I'm the Halle Berry of the NBA. Everybody wants this, baby. Everybody wants me.

That game was dedicated to Rick Adelman. I'm at home, in the bathroom, trying to take a dump, flipping through the channels and he's complaining (on TV) about how I'm stepping over the line. I can't even do a No. 2 in peace. I'm sitting there grunting at 12:30 at night. Can I go one day without somebody saying something negative about me?

Once you learn how to do something, you don't lose it. Unless you die.

I don't send messages, I'm not a fax machine

They say things happen in three. I won with the great Kobe, the great D-Wade and now it's my job to win one with the great LeBron James. We have everything in place. We just got to get it done.

The stats win nothing. I'm still sexy. I'm still great.

We're the most experienced team in the league. I think we got a little too happy, running our mouths, jumping up and down, looking at the Heat dancers and all of that stuff. We had to step it up and show them what we're all about.

As a basketball fan, I get sick and tired of people talking about numbers. To me, the world is getting too materialistic.

Enunciation, diction, all that stuff. None of that is in my personality.

I'm not a young jitterbug anymore. When I was a young jitterbug, I never won. I didn't start winning until I got older. The older I get, the wiser I get. You just have to play it smart.

Because I grew up with a drill sergeant in my life, I respect order and it really gave me the discipline to be a leader and not a follower. It also helped me stay out of trouble.

That is why one day I said my game will be like the Pythagorean Theorem - hard to figure out. A lot of people really don't know the Pythagorean Theory. They don't make them like me anymore. They don't want to make them like that anymore.

As a general, and as a leader of this team, whatever I've got to do get my guys going I'll do it every time. If I have to be the bad guy sometime, I'll guess I'll take that. That's what a leader and a general and a chief of police does. Everybody is not going to like it, but I don't care if they like or not. I'm Bush, so if they don't like it resign.

I have a lot left. There's only four or five good centers in the league and I'm in that number. ... I've been in it for 17 years but I've missed three years because of injury. If you do the math, I've still got three years left. You got that?

I don't have to make a point. I'm George Bush. I'm the president. I built that arena, so I don't have to make a point.