Shaquille O'Neal pays respect to Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell at Basketball Hall of Fame press conference

http://www.masslive.com/celtics/index.ssf/2016/09/shaquille_oneal_pays_respect_t.html



Shaquille O'Neal pays respect to Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell at Basketball Hall of Fame press conference




2016 class of inductee into the Basketball Hall of Fame Shaquille O'Neal models his jacket during a news conference at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016, in Springfield, Mass. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)



Jay King | mjking@masslive.com By Jay King | mjking@masslive.com


on September 08, 2016 at 7:00 PM





SPRINGFIELD -- One day before officially joining his mentor in the Basketball Hall of Fame, Shaquille O'Neal paid respect to Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell.

After learning about his induction, which will take place Friday night, O'Neal asked Russell to be one of his four Hall of Fame presenters along with Isiah Thomas, Julius Erving and Alonzo Mourning. In the past, O'Neal has discussed how much he values his time with Russell, who won 11 championships with the Celtics.

"I learned from experience that a lot of times conversations with ones that are greater than you will take you to that next level because those are stuff that you can't buy, stuff you can't practice," O'Neal said Thursday during a Hall of Fame press conference. "So just sitting with him, like, the first time I met him -- three hours. He was just telling me a whole bunch of stuff. I learned a lot from him. I wish I would have had that opportunity with Kareem (Abdul-Jabaar) and Wilt (Chamberlain), but for some reason we never got to talk for more than five minutes. Which is fine. But when I first met Bill Russell, he was nice, he was sweet.

"He told me I was a great player. I was like, 'Wow.' And then we just sat down and talked about his game. He was like, 'You should do this, you should do that.' And when you get information like that, it's like one of the top tech guys trying to give you some stock information. You better take it, you know what I mean?"

Later in the interview, O'Neal was asked to pick an all-time starting five with himself at the center position.

"I wouldn't be on that team because I'm not that good," he replied.

Instead, O'Neal put Russell in the middle next to Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Julius Erving ("Doc's my guy," O'Neal said), and Karl Malone ("a little bit more durable than Charles Barkley").



bob



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Great guy Shaq is. I love how he seemed just as glitzy, self-absorbed and attention driven in the 90's as LeBron does today, but did it in a way that was just more fun, less narcissistic and able to respect the veteran of the game and talk intelligently about NBA history at the same time. 

LeBron cannot do that. He comes off as an unlikeable, no fun narcissist who is either ignorant about the game or sh!ts on it when he does things like refuse to put Bill Russell on an NBA Mt. Rushmore and gets sucked into convo's comparing him to Jordan when he couldn't hold MJ's jock.

Shaq is a bit misguided there putting "his boy" Doc over Bird, but we'll forgive him b/c he does the no-brainer thing putting Russ over Wilt or Kareem while so many others do not. Rick Barry to this day makes public statements saying Wilt is the greatest player of all time over Russ, Jordan AND Kareem. Yikes!

We'll never know if an in his prime Dr. J (mid 70's) would have outperformed an in his prime Bird (mid 80's) head to head. But we know Larry had the better career overall, more titles, more MVP's, etc. and is generally NEVER left out of a top 6-7 players of all-time list (he's #5 on mine) while Doc gets stuck in that 10-15 range.

I get why Doc, 'Zo and Russ were there, but I don't know Shaq's connection to Isiah Thomas that would have him be one of his 4 presenters, arguably one of the four most influential mentors/peers in his entire career. 

Wouldn't Jerry West, Phil Jackson or (to really make the media go nuts) Kobe Bryant been better choices there? Or even like Horace Grant, Pat Riley, Rick Fox, Penny Hardaway, Wade...

bobheckler wrote:http://www.masslive.com/celtics/index.ssf/2016/09/shaquille_oneal_pays_respect_t.html



Later in the interview, O'Neal was asked to pick an all-time starting five with himself at the center position.

"I wouldn't be on that team because I'm not that good," he replied.

Instead, O'Neal put Russell in the middle next to Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Julius Erving ("Doc's my guy," O'Neal said), and Karl Malone ("a little bit more durable than Charles Barkley").[/i]



bob



.

Pretty hard to argue that isn't one of the top all-time starting five groups.

Anyone watch Russell on stage? He looks tough. Hardly any reaction from him, no cackle laughter, no smiles, he just kept looking forward. He is walking with a cane now. This is not the first time I have noticed this abut him. I was appalled at the way they dragged him up on the dias at the championship game and then didn't even give him a tip of the hat even though the MVP trophy is named after him.

It proves to us all, especially me, that age is creeping up of all of us.

SAD

RosalieTCeltics wrote:Anyone watch Russell on stage? He looks tough. Hardly any reaction from him, no cackle laughter, no smiles, he just kept looking forward. He is walking with a cane now. This is not the first time I have noticed this abut him. I was appalled at the way they dragged him up on the dias at the championship game and then didn't even give him a tip of the hat even though the MVP trophy is named after him.  

It proves to us all, especially me, that age is creeping up of all of us.

SAD

Rosalie

I watched the entire ceremony. Sad to agree - but the years seem to be taking there toll. I've got him by a couple years and let me tell you - I'T's hard to hold off Father Time. He's relentless - especially as you near the finish line.

swish