A biography for Jermaine O'Nealhasn’t been written yet.
“I wanted to show people that I'm not a bust. I can play. I can do this.”
“I cannot wait to get to Boston and start to practice with the rest of the team in pursuit of a championship.”
“Maturity is everything.”
“I remember Kenny Anderson. He's got these huge stacks of Fed Ex envelopes. They were super-packed and he'd open it up and it would be all checks. He was always signing his own checks. He would always call me Kid.' He'd say, Kid, always remember to sign your own checks. Don't allow anybody to sign your checks.'”
“At 40, your body and your mind doesn't do the same thing as it used to do.”
“It comes down to personalities and style of play, and I thought Boston has all that for me.”
“God don't like ugly.”
“Sometimes when you have a disconnect within your team, there's no way you can win.”
“I'll go into Ruth's Chris. They'll have my room in the back and I'd go to pay the bill and somebody had paid the bill already. That happened multiple times. That's the love people give you.”
“Kobe's been criticized unfairly. He's in a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' situation. If he passes too much, they say he's not shooting. If he shoots, he's called selfish.”
“I want to be able to function and that's the conversation that I'm having now more than ever - playing vs. functioning while I'm finished playing.”
“Being a part of something great is what matters to me.”
“And no matter what, at the end of the day whether it's with the Pacers or somewhere else, I'm going to continue to succeed.”
“Well one thing you can't say is that I don't know basketball.”
“I respect people's ability to come out and perform and take care of their family based on their bodies.”
“It's hard to regret stuff. You make decisions and you go with it.”
“Sometimes you wish things would have been different. People still talk about the teams in Indiana. People can't believe we didn't win a championship.”
“Basketball was just secondary, and I never had the opportunity to really address the issues that I was having physically.”
“I'm getting to the point, I'm in my 11th year, I don't want to play 82 games and then exit to watch somebody else pop champagne I'm tired of that. I want to compete for a championship.”
“I know how hard it is to win a championship in this league.”