Shaquille Rashaun “Shaq” O’Neal is an American sports analyst on the television program Inside the NBA on TNT, former professional basketball player, and rapper. O’Neal was a 7-foot-1-inch (2.16 m) and 325-pound (147 kg) center who played for six teams over his 19-year career in the National Basketball Association (NBA). O’Neal is regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. These Shaquille O’Neal quotes will motivate you.
Best Shaquille O’Neal Quotes
- “Excellence is a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “The only person who can really motivate you is you.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “I am Superman. And the only thing that can kill Superman is Kryptonite. And Kryptonite doesn’t exist.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “The stats win nothing. I’m still sexy. I’m still great.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “I don’t know how it is for you earthlings, but where I’m from, strength is mental.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
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“The day I stopped worrying about stats is the day I started winning” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “My message to little kids who aspire to be anything they want to be is to listen to their parents.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “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.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “Yeah, D-Wade called me up last night and said that he saw some film of me in high school and thinks that my form then was better and that I should shoot like that. I told him I’d think about it and then my pops called and said something like that so I decided to revert back and then.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal Quotes
- “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.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
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“My secret? See it, and stay focused on it.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “I’m a combination of the Terminator and Bambi.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “The biggest thing that will define my legacy is how I’ve done it, and what I’ve done, and who I am. I’m a weird big guy. Doing rapping, doing movies. Do a lot of stuff. But always do things the right way. Went to the police academy to become a police officer. Get his master’s in criminal justice, stayed out of trouble. Played for three different teams. Changed three different franchises around. This is a guy who they would have secret meetings about to change the rules. So, that’s going to be my legacy: the most dominant player ever.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “I’m still here. I’m a force to be reckoned with… you have to come take my spot, and not through Twitter and not through the media, come take my spot. I’m ready to go. As big men in the league, there are two who have done something special during this millennium. I’m one and Tim Duncan is the other. Anyone else has to come upstairs and see the Shogun. I’m still the Shogun.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
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“I really get motivated when I have doubters.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “Anyone can win a slam-dunk contest. The real Superman is dead. He was assassinated by Pat Riley. I’m the Big Cactus now and ready to roll again.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “If I were a painter, you’d be calling me Shaqcasso.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “Tell Yao Ming, ‘Ching-chong-yang-wah-ah-soh.'” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “Probably a lack of concentration. I always hit them during practice. I just need to concentrate. Even though I should a lousy percentage, I beat a lot of teams from the line. You have to have mechanics. But see, what people don’t know about my wrists is my wrists don’t go all the way back. My wrists are crooked and don’t go all the way back. I’ve been practicing and working on them. You can’t do everything good.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
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“I ate too many Frosted Flakes. I don’t remember what I said last night.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “I don’t believe in pressure. Pressure is when you don’t know where your next meal is coming from.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “But, hey I did everything the right way and earned my spot in this game, nothing was given to me.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “I think I’m the only player who looks at each and every center and says to myself, ‘That’s barbecued chicken down there.'” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “Kobe always tried to be a hero. But you know, as the saying goes, a hero ain’t nothing but a sandwich.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “I endorse only products I actually use. Like Wheaties keeps offering me money, but I don’t eat Wheaties, so I can’t do it. Now, if Rice Krispies or Frosted Flakes offered me a deal, I’d take it right away. Apple Jacks, I’d be on the box in a heartbeat. Apple Shaqs. Yeah.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “I had an awful first quarter but I picked it up. To all you single guys out there, it’s not how you start the date, it’s how you finish it sir. A lot of people can, you know, start the date with flowers and candy, but if you don’t finish the date – you know what I mean?” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “Some things you just can’t question. Like you can’t question why two plus two is four. So don’t question it, don’t try to look it up. I don’t know who made it, all I know is it was put in my head that two plus two is four. So certain things happen. Why does it rain? Why am I so sexy? I don’t know.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
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“If you don’t stick to simplicity, you’ll die a horrible death.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “Y’all reporters like my quotes, don’t you. Yeah, my quotes are Shaqalicious.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “I’m tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “Pluto is not a planet, but I am.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “Why don’t you bring your face up here and let me punch it? Then you can tell me (if I’m stronger).” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “I’m going to be on a mission. I’ve handled my personal vendettas and handled them well. Every challenge you put in front of me, I’ve handled it, dismantled it – ate them, dropped them off in the bathroom and flushed them away.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
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“I would like to be referred to as ‘The Big Aristotle’.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “We want to win. We want to win big. We want to win the whole thing.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “You guys make the rules up, so a foul is a foul. It doesn’t matter if a guy is bigger and stronger. It’s not my fault I ate my Frosted Flakes when I was little, and you ate Wheaties.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “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.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “He’s a jokester, and that’s funny, very funny. Ha-ha. Very funny.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
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“Before I became the ‘Great Test of the West,” I was the ‘Beast of the East.'” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “I just want everyone to know I’m suing Ruben Studdard. He had his hand on my ass and he wouldn’t let go.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “There was a kid that had five brothers and sisters, and the family was missing for like five days. I was watching TV, they [found each other] and now they’re in San Antonio. So I bought them a little apartment in San Antonio. But I’m doing stuff like that all over.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “As my great friend Aristotle said, ‘If you cannot command, you must learn to listen.’ I’m not the hierarchy here. I am a worker bee.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “(The Hack-A-Shaq is) just a way of telling me that you can’t stop me. Thank you. I appreciate it.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “When you flop, that’s just another message that you don’t know how to play me. Stand up and take your medicine like a man.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “It’s sort of like in the movie The Karate Kid when Daniel said he needed Mr. Miyagi. And Mr. Miyagi gave him that confidence to believe he really didn’t. These guys think they really need me right now, but they don’t. When I come back, we’ll all need each other to step up our games and do what needs to be done.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
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“I’m always ready for a change. I’m Irish. I’m a leprechaun.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “I’m on a mission. And I know the older I get, I may lose a step or two, but it’s all up in the medulla oblongata. I’ve got a lot up there. I’ve got a lot of knowledge… in this medulla oblongata.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “It was a weird game. There was ugly shooting and a lot of turnovers and mistakes, and we were just fortunate to get the win. I should have done better, but it was just a very ugly and weird game… I knew the game was going to be an ugly game when I saw those three guys at the scorer’s table. Ugly people call ugly games.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “Being here feels like I’m out of prison. This is the right place, the right time, the right team.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “Obviously, Sam is the type of guy that hides behind his pen and pad. I promise you he wouldn’t say that to my face in a dark alley where it’s just me and him and no witnesses.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “Opinions are like belly buttons; everybody has one. I never knock a man for his opinion.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
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“Once you learn how to do something, you don’t lose it. Unless you die.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “If he were on fire, he couldn’t act as if he were burning. He can’t out-act me on the big screen.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “I know how to turn the bad into good always.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “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.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “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.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “It’s LeBron’s team. He’s the captain. This is the time in my career where I can fit in. I’m now in the security business. My job is to protect the King, and that’s what I’m here to do.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
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“Get away from my house. What do you want?” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “I failed, I think, seven [or] eight times before I finally got my first [championship]. It was just, you know, just about me growing up. Now that I’m an old, old veteran-age 29-I do things a lot differently. I don’t go to the gentlemen’s clubs anymore. I had to slow that down.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “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.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “I’m very educated and can give you somewhat of a vocabulary, but I don’t get to the philosophical side.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
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“That was a foul, young lady. You know that was a foul. Don’t ask dumb questions.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “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.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “He’s just intelligent-sort of a nerd, actually. He’s the only brother I know who made a 1420 on the SAT. I don’t think Chris Dudley did that, and Mr. Smarty Pants went to Yale. Kobe doesn’t hang out. He doesn’t go to the clubs. He doesn’t ride around. He doesn’t put rims on his car. He’s just him. He’s a sophisticated kid. Damn mature for his age.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
- “As a basketball fan, I get sick and tired of people talking about numbers. To me, the world is getting too materialistic.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
