i was going to get a jimmy blazer and a benz, and that was going to be it. so was it not the passion then for basketball - but really the money? - yes. - really? - yes. levin: were you naturally good? shaq: no, at first i wasn t good. but, you know, i just gradually worked, worked, worked. and then when my father showed me that article, that s when i really started focusing. you had problems dunking. as a youngster, i did. and my father changed that, too. - how d that happen? - so one day in the game, i m real smooth and i m, you know, and i finger-rolled it up. my father called a time out, pulled me outside. he said, come outside. he said, what are you doing? i said, i m just working on my dr. j. he said, there ain t no dr. j. be shaq. you better start dunking every time every time you get the ball, you better start dunking. and he walked back into there. so i was so mad and so embarrassed that he did that, that i told my guy, i said, give it to me. and from then on, i woul
you have the best celebrity story of all time involving michael jordan. i do. playing dice on the men s room floor. let s skip the rest of the story. fortunately, i won the game. quentin marcellus. i went to see his jazz show when i was 18. he sang happy birthday to me. i met dr. j at a sixers game, julius erving, for those of you that don t know. not a real doctor. he gave me a checkup, dana. [laughter] and then i got his autograph and then i lost it. i ve done that. i grew up in wyoming and colorado and there are not that many celebrities, but i think i met john elway when i was a kid.
michael jordan. i do. playing dice on the men s room floor. let s skip the rest of the story. fortunately, i won the game. quentin marcellus. i went to see his jazz show when i was 18. he sang happy birthday to me. i met dr. j at a sixers game, julius erving, for those of you that don t know. not a real doctor. he gave me a checkup, dana. [laughter] and then i got his autograph and then i lost it. i ve done that. i grew up in wyoming and colorado and there are not that many celebrities, but i think i met john elway when i was a kid. he was the quarterback for the denver broncos. it might not have been.
losers of 16 in a row. and in baseball, 23 straight losses by the philadelphia phillies. this season is a far cry from the glory days of the team, the days of wilt chamberlain, dr. j and allen iverson. fans tough on their teams but this season, sixers fans are barely showing up. looks like they have the long game in mind. hopefully in about two years, they ll go from worst back to the top again. philadelphia fans are smart and they see what s going on here and they know you got to lose to win. eventually. and what she s talking about of course is if you have a really terrible losing season, you get a high draft pick, so it maybe does have a silver lining there, but it s not what you want as a fan. i guess at this point, that s the only press release the team can really send out. you want to believe they re trying and up against teams that are really, really good. but that s just not the case. they re not good.
had such an amazing life. and that was just like icing on the cake, to be honest with you. it really is. even just walking into the white house and i was a white house correspondent for many years. every day you do it, you pinch yourself. you say, boy, what a country we have that something like this can happen. but talk about what he reflected on. we heard him in that excerpt from the interview talking about some of the earlier pioneers, jackie robinson, oscar robertson who paved the way for him and, in fact, paved the way for you. being at the all-star game this weekend, i got to see the great bill russell who is probably one of the great mentors i ever had in my life. guys like oscar robertson, wilt chamberlain, dr. j, moses malone, and i know those guys played a little bit later, but you think about it, i never had to do any heavy lifting. all the older black players and white players i think