Shaquille O'Neal is a bright guy. He's a brilliant self-promoter who pulls it off without harming his brand (paging Maverick Carter). He's got his hand in a number of different ventures that will most likely assure him of not pulling an Antoine Walker. And just in case that wasn't enough for you:
“If I wanted to, I could attend a couple of classes at Harvard and hold my own,” Shaq said yesterday after the Celtics completed their morning practice in Waltham. “That’s how smart I am. I could even go to MIT if I had enough time, and actually hold my own. Those Harvard and MIT guys, those are like Bill Gates and guys like that. They’re brilliant minds.”
Yeah, I totally could do the same. I could totally go to MIT and hold my own if I had enough time. Too bad I don't. Cuz then you'd see. I'd like do all that mathy stuff... then I'd go do sciency things. And you'd know I'm smart cuz I'd wear a long white lab coat and goggles everywhere. I'd even go to Starbucks and order using their words like "Venti" and "please."
Oh, Shaq's still talking?
“I like to put everything in a basketball sense,” he said, the geek in him apparently shedding his camouflage. “But if you see someone do just one thing, that’s all you think they can do. So I just do what I do, and that’s all people think I can do, but nobody knows how many businesses I own. Nobody knows how many commercials I’ve created.”
But, alas, Shaq has no immediate plans to take the Red Line to Cambridge to sit in on some classes.
“I’m not going to do it unless it can help me,” he said. “I don’t want to do it just to see if I can do it. If it’s not going to help me toward a doctorate or another degree, than I’m not going to do it.”
Looking forward to the "Shaq Vs." with theoretical physicist Michio Kaku.
