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All-Star Weekend 2004

Los Angeles Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal spoke with the media a few days before the 2004 NBA All-Star game, which is taking place in Los Angeles. Shaq is coming off the bench for the Western All-Stars. Yao Ming was voted by fans to start, ahead of him.

Q: Another crazy week in Lakerland. What’s your take regarding Kobe and Phil Jackson?

Shaq: I really haven’t been paying much attention. I know that this is sport first and a business second, and people have to do what’s right for them. There are a lot of guys with a lot of different feelings -- if they want to stay or if they want to leave. I’m sure everyone, at the end or their retirement, are gonna do what’s right for them.

Q: Has this been your most frustrating season, with so much hope in the beginning?

Shaq: I wouldn’t really call it frustrating. I kind of expected it a little bit. And when you expect it, you know how to prepare for it. When we lost a couple of games, the reason we were losing had nothing to do with what you guys were writing. So I just don’t pay any attention to it. It’s kind of fun, it’s a kind of marketing. Because if you talk about us negatively or positively, you’re still talking about us. So that’s a form of marketing.

Q: Did you foresee this (All-Star) as a kind of a break, and now instead you’re going through a lot of what you’ve been going through during the season?

Shaq: 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.

Q: You said, like Michael, that you didn’t want to play for another coach. Do you still hold to that?

Shaq: I said that, that’s what I said, and my statement still stands.

Q: Do you see Yao Ming as replacing you as the most dominant center in the game?

Shaq: Most dominant? No. Probably one of the greatest? Yeah. Most dominant is a term that, to me, it’s all about banging, it’s all about how you play and all about getting them to change the rules. I’ve been here 10 years and I’ve made them change the rules two times. Yao’s a great player, he’s a great sport. Being dominant is being mean, throwing elbows, talking trash, cursing and all that attitude (laughs). Will he be one of the greatest in terms of playing the game? Definitely.