Shaquille O'Neal was the most dominant center of his generation, but he's always quick to recognize his predecessors. In particular, he's always beaming about Bill Russell.
Russell, an 11-time NBA champion, served as a mentor of sorts for O'Neal during his career. As a result, it's not surprising that Shaq chose Russell to be one of his presenters for his Hall of Fame induction.
On Thursday, O'Neal opened up about his relationship with Russell and what he learned from the Celtics legend. From Jay King of Mass Live:
“I learned from experience that a lot of times conversations with ones that are greater than you will take you to that next level because those are stuff that you can't buy, stuff you can't practice,” O'Neal said Thursday during a Hall of Fame press conference. “So just sitting with him, like, the first time I met him — three hours. He was just telling me a whole bunch of stuff. I learned a lot from him. I wish I would have had that opportunity with Kareem (Abdul-Jabaar) and Wilt (Chamberlain), but for some reason we never got to talk for more than five minutes. Which is fine. But when I first met Bill Russell, he was nice, he was sweet.
“He told me I was a great player. I was like, ‘Wow.' And then we just sat down and talked about his game. He was like, ‘You should do this, you should do that.' And when you get information like that, it's like one of the top tech guys trying to give you some stock information. You better take it, you know what I mean?”
It's no surprise that O'Neal has Russell on his all-time starting five.
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