He's one of the 50 greatest players of all-time. He's got four championship rings. He's been selected to 14 consecutive All-Star games; no one has been to 15 straight. And his Hall of Fame spot was secure long ago.
It's more than most players even dare to fantasize about.
And somehow, it's not enough to leave O'Neal satisfied.
So that's part of the reason the 7-foot-1 center is here, 30 minutes after the Miami Heat ended practice, working. The arc of sweat on his workout jersey is getting deeper by the minute, now stretching all the way to his waistline. Jump hooks, drop steps, baseline jumpers, over and over, all with one goal in mind.
"My legacy," he said. "Not what people write and create about me. My personal legacy, the one I want to leave for my kids. I'm not done with that yet."
Whoa.
Is he not aware of what he's done in his first 15 NBA seasons? The 25,454 points? The 11,379 rebounds? The 25.9 point-per-game scoring average? The 58 percent career field-goal percentage?
Of course he's aware of all that. But for whatever reason, he doesn't yet view himself in the same class as a Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson or Bill Russell - three of the first names that typically enter the discussion of greatest players ever.
He says another championship - or two, or even three - will change that.
"People talk about who the greatest players are and right now, my name is in a subcategory," O'Neal said. "I'm in the big-man category. See, Mike is the greatest player of all time. I want to be up there in that spoken word of players. How? Six championships. I've got four. If we can get five or six, maybe I can get in that conversation - if only for a couple of sentences."
Prognosticators, frankly, think O'Neal is nuts for thinking that way.
The Heat stumbled their way to an injury-marred 44-38 record a year ago, then got swept in the first round of the playoffs by the younger, healthier and, well, better Chicago Bulls - ending Miami's championship defense with a quick thud.
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