Shaq Talks Back - Softcover

Shaquille O'Neal lives in Los Angeles. He is the center for the World Champion Los Angeles Lakers and was chosen as the Most Valuable Player in the NBA for the 1999-2000 season.

Shaquille O'Neal, all seven-feet-something, 330 pounds of him, is the dominant player in the NBA today, the man in the middle on the world-champion Los Angeles Lakers. His words draw a crowd because he's a marquee star, but the question, as it always is with sports autobiographies, is whether he has anything to say. The answer is not much. The story of his loving but sometimes harshly disciplined childhood with his mom and military stepfather does provide an explanation as to why, despite a few on-court controversies, Shaq has managed to handle his fame with dignity and humor. Both of those qualities are present here as he recounts his college years, his entry into the NBA after his sophomore season, and the early years in Orlando that included a promising a trip to the NBA finals but ended with acrimony. Now that he's 30 and owns a championship ring, he feels free to talk about fellow players, coaches, and media. A petulant side emerges here (the talking-back part); clearly, Shaq holds a grudge, even against Lenny Wilkens (the all-time winningest NBA coach) who only played Shaq for 43 seconds in the Olympic gold medal game. He's also hard on television commentator Pete Vescey ("That crazy cat will write anything"). In the end, NBA fans, who form the built-in audience for this book, will find it more substantive than they might have expected but without any significant revelations. On balance: a nice enough, very rich young man tells his story with as much panache as he can muster. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved