Shaquille O'Neal Basketball Quotations

The Big Cactus. I will stick you.

I'm just getting better and better. It's just like a bunch of worker bees protecting the king bee, because I'm not a queen bee. I'm a king bee.

I know how to turn the bad into good always.

I am aware that most people only see me as Shaq... the guy on the court. But there is another side to who I am, Shaquille O'Neal. And Shaquille O'Neal wants to explore every part of life. He wants the opportunity to pursue all of his desires. That includes being a part of the music industry as an MC. Music is and will always be a part of who I am.

For once in my career, I won't have to hold anybody's hand and they won't have to hold mine. I'm surrounded by veterans. We had a great battle last Thursday at HealthPoint. It was something I never had before - three, four, really great players all in one pickup game.

I'm known as The Big Baryshnikov.

I just said to myself, 'Damn, I'm a great player.'

The Big Cactus... because if you come too close, you're gonna get stuck.

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.

Sometimes I feel like the Tom Hanks character in Big. But my life is not a movie. I never have to go back to Coney Island to find the fortune-teller machine so I have to grow up again.

It's t'ai chi every time. I'm using your positive energy, and I'm blowing off it. See, most guys can't push, they got to lean. When they lean, I spin.

I don't get tired. I get beat up. You keep chopping on a tree, you need to give the tree some rest so the chlorophyll will fill back up and the tree gets its energy back.

When I first came in, I partied and had a good time. I used to spend $500,000 on chains that don't make no sense. Then I started having babies. I don't do the bull**** no more.

I wouldn't. I would just go home. I'd fake an injury or something.

I've been 11, 12 percent body fat my whole career. But when you've got a big, sexy, beautiful man that's up in the 340s, 350s, the way you guys were taught on this planet, you're going to automatically think it's fat.

You know how I be. Last week Kobe couldn't do without me.

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

If you don't stick to simplicity, you'll die a horrible death.

I'm a cop, and cops talk. They called me the day he did it, but did you ever hear me say anything about it? I played ball, because that's how I am. I'm true.

I don't take anything personal. I just have a certain file in my head, so Earthlings must be careful with what they say.

If I don't get five [titles], I won't be happy with myself as a basketball player. I don't know how you guys will feel about me.

I'll beat you up right now if you want me to.

The East is going to be pretty easy for me. The Great Chest of the West becomes the Great Beast of the East.

No matter where they put people, no matter how they try to promote people, there aren't too many people in the game today that are on my level on and off the court.

You have to foul me to stop me, period.

Win or lose, I am programmed to do more. That's because I am the other son of Jorel - Superman.

I'm dominant every night. I come in every night and get beat up. I never make a face when they try to flagrant or hack-a-Shaq me, because I'm not from this planet. Earthlings don't faze me.

I painted my toenails before Dennis Rodman. One time at training camp, I stubbed my toe and the nail came loose. My mom gave me some toenail hardener, and I painted over it. I scored 40-something points that night, so it became a ritual. Paint my toenails, score 40 points.

Once the Hack-a-Shaq works once, you know I'm going to see it again. The only thing worse for basketball than that defense is the Lack-a-Shaq offense, where I have to go to the bench because of foul trouble. There is no fun in that.

Before I became the 'Great Test of the West," I was the 'Beast of the East.'

I take that as an insult, even at 36.

Guys have made livings off me. Nick Anderson got a new contract. Travis Knight got a new contract off me. As a matter of fact, Derek Fisher called me yesterday to thank me. If you double me, I'm kicking out to Eddie, who's the best shooter in the East. Or I'm going to give it to Dwyane, or put it on the ground and come bang on you.

I really get motivated when I have doubters.

Word has it, they think I'm an old man, and they're not gonna double me. My message is that I'm the baddest for my age bracketest. What I mean by age bracketest is that I came in at 20, I was the baddest 20, and I'm the baddest at 35.

I don't listen to people who can't do stuff that I do.

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.

You like that analogy? That was pretty good?

When you feed the big dog, it does whatever you tell him to do.

I'm one year older, one year sexier - one more, baby. For me, it's all about the bigger picture. We want to win the whole thing. We've got to beat whoever is in our way.

I don't have to shoot from more than two feet. I'm top 50. I've got 23,000 from where I shoot.

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

Being the best right now doesn't do anything for my feathers.

I'm upset at myself. I should have had 50. I missed 13 free throws. That's unacceptable. If I want to be accepted by Wilt and Kareem and Russell I've got to start playing better than that. Right now I'm still in the class of Hakeem and David Robinson and that's not good enough for me. I want to be out there with the immortals.

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 think I'm one of the patches of the quilt here, myself and Dwyane.

I've read that same formula, but as an athlete I'm classified as phenomenal. You could look it up.

I'm going back to the old Shaq. I was normal last year - I was an earthling last summer. I had to go back to my alien roots.

I was like, 'Huh? You want my jersey?'

Somebody asked me about this the other day. A young Shaq and a young Penny, the young Shaq's going to take over. A medium Shaq and a young Kobe, the medium Shaq is going to take over. Now you've got an older Shaq and a young Dwyane; you step aside, you let him do his thing and you just do what's asked of you.

Every team that plays us plays above their heads. That's because of me.

They want to beat the Don Dadda. It means, 'The Man.'

I'm the LCL - the Last Center Left. I've been doing the same things for 13 years, but now they're flopping and falling, and the refs are falling for it, too.

I'm the last in the line of Russells and Chamberlains.

I'm not really worried about my numbers now as a 36-year-old. I'm not trying to be the first, experimental case of a 36-year-older trying to maintain his numbers, especially when I'm on a team like this. Can I do the same stuff I could do when I was Amare's age? Of course not. I'm not going to even try. However, I feel that I'm the baddest 36-year-old out there.

I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.

I guess people think the taller you are the more dominant you have to be.

I have never been a shooter.

I knew I was dog meat. Luckily, I'm the high-priced dog meat that everybody wants. I'm the good-quality dog meat. I'm the Alpo of the NBA.

I'm a mama's boy above all.

Someday I might have to put down a basketball and have a regular 9-to-5 like everybody else.

My father made me who I am. He gave me a basketball and told me to play with the ball, sleep with the ball, dream with the ball. Just don't take it to school. I used it as a pillow, and it never gave me a stiff neck.

There is no answer to the Pythagorean theorem. Well, there is an answer, but by the time you figure it out, I got 40 points, 10 rebounds and then we're planning for the parade.

David Stern should get with the mothers of the NBA and let the moms decide what the dress code should be. I asked my mother if I could wear a chain, and she told me yeah. So I do stuff that my parents allow me to do.

For all my friends in the media who like quotes, mark this quote down. From this day on I'd like to be known as 'The Big Aristotle' because Aristotle once said, 'Excellence is not a singular act; it's a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.'

I put a lot into it, and when I am done playing, I plan on going undercover and then being the sheriff or chief of police somewhere, either Miami or Orlando, I don't know yet.

I've won at every level, except college and pro.

Well, I don't remember all the names of all the clubs we went to

One lucky shot deserves another.

Everything happens for a reason. I'm used to it, I prepare for it. Like I say, at the end of the day, those in charge of their own destiny are going to do what's right for them and their family.

Me shooting 40% at the foul line is just God's way to say nobody's perfect.

I am the number one Ninja and I have killed all the Shoguns in front of me.

Our offense is like the pythagorean theorem: There is no answer!

I don't believe that I personally have been changed by the money. The bad thing is people assume you've changed because now you have money.

Why don't you bring your face up here and let me punch it? Then you can tell me (if I'm stronger).

And I want to do it the right way, like everybody else, not just a famous figurehead that gets a job because he is a famous basketball player. I want to really learn the business.

I never worry about the problem. I worry about the solution.

This is a tough game. There are times when you've got to play hurt, when you've got to block out the pain.

Challenge me. Treat me like a game of checkers and play me. That's all I'm asking, just play me. Treat me like Sega and play me.

I started out as a football player. I liked to inflict pain. In basketball, it was the same thing.

I want to be strong, dominant. Like Wilt Chamberlain.

I'm like tax. You're going to pay one way or the other.

If you got the game, you got the game. That's why Tiger Woods is out there playing golf with Greg Norman.

We're going to miss Damon. He was a great shooter. . . . He got what he wanted, but he gave up a lot. No more night life, no more warm weather and no more a lot of media attention. . . . I guess this was his first shot at getting something big. I guess he had to take it.

We would love to have Gary down here. He's still tenacious on defense, and I know he still wants [a title]. And I'm the only guy in the world who can get him one.

If they want to play football, we can play football.

I'm the NBA's best NFL player, and I've always been the sexiest 7-footer in the NBA - for 12 years running.

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

I knew I was going to make one. I wanted to make two, but the first one rattled in and rattled right out.

Can't nobody [mess] with me. I'm like toilet paper, Pampers and toothpaste. I'm definitely proven to be effective.

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.

But you can not compare Yao's stats to mine. You just can't compare it and I am playing everyone one-on-one.

But, hey I did everything the right way and earned my spot in this game, nothing was given to me.

I don't get nervous in any situation. There's no such thing as nerves when you're playing games.

I don't see us having a problem. It's going to be my job to manage the locker room, anyway, so it will work out.

I play against a front and a back every night, Ming does not have to do that, Duncan does not have to do that, Garnett doesn't do that. I am the only one that has to do that.

I would like to be referred to as 'The Big Aristotle'.

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.

The Miami Heat has the best fans.

We want to win. We want to win big. We want to win the whole thing.

We're just going to come out and play. We know that we're supposed to win all the games, but if we don't, we just have to take the next game and focus on what we did wrong in the game before and just try to do better at the next game.