About five hours before the Miami Heat defeated the Washington Wizards, I decided that I wanted to interview Heat center, Jermaine O’Neal.  Not only had my editor informed me that he was a great talker, but he had some intangibles that led me to believe he would give me an interview of substance.  He’s been in the league for 14 seasons, he’s played in All Star games, he’s been in the NBA finals, and now here he was trying to win an NBA title with a young coach, a young team, and oh-by-the-way, Dwyane Wade.

So when I entered the Heat locker room and saw O’Neal sitting alone, I was excited that things were falling into place, and my plan had come together.  I quickly reviewed my notepad full of questions to make sure I was prepared, I checked my recording device to make sure it worked, and I checked my breath to make sure I wasn’t going to kill the man  during the interview.  Having gone down my personal checklist, I was now ready to begin.

I went up to O’Neal, asked him if he’d mind answering some questions.  His answer?

“Yeah man, but you have like two minutes before I go warm up.”

After picking up both my lips and jaw off the floor, I regained my composure, did a quick mental inventory of the important questions I wanted to ask, turned on my recorder to begin the interview, and a funny thing started to happen.  The two minutes O’Neal had allotted, turned into six minutes, and instead of me having to pick and choose the questions I wanted to ask, I was able to get through all of my questions (except one, more on that later).

During this interview, O’Neal talked to me about his initial basketball-related memory, his tenure in Portland, and how he’s matured during his career.

Rashad Mobley: What is your first memory associated with basketball
Jermaine O’Neal: Man, I just remember watching Isiah Thomas, Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson, playing those Sunday NBC games, and their pictures were always frozen.  I was really interested then, and that was maybe like my freshman or 8th grade year.  So my brother and I went out and put a hoop in the back yard and it started off being a home made hoop with a regular rim and a wooden backboard.  So those are my first memories of really just playing basketball and obviously everything just happened very quickly.

RM: At what point did you realize, ok I can do this professionally?
JO: It just happened after my freshman year, because I played varsity my freshman year.  Then my sophomore year I got better and went to a couple camps and then my junior year, that’s when all the talk was about guys from high school going pro.  That’s when KG (Kevin Garnett) left that year.  But my junior year was the year I definitely thought about being able to play this game for a living.  You don’t think that much about it your first couple of years, because nobody really think that they’re going to make it to the NBA.  Its just that guys are really, really lucky to get there.  Once I got into my junior year, I really started figuring out that I could actually play in the NBA one day.  I didn’t know it was going to happen so soon.

RM: Now you didn’t play a whole lot your first three years, did you start to doubt whether you would get to that starting role?
JO: No, because I was outperforming a lot of the guys that were playing in front of me in practice (O’Neal played for the Portland Trailblazers from ‘96-00).  I never ever questioned my talent or my ability.  I played with Crotty (John Crotty is a radio analyst for 610 AM in South Florida, and he played for the Trailblazers from ‘97-’98) in Portland and he’ll even tell you.  My ability has always been there, no matter what the obstacle has been.  So I definitely felt comfortable where I was physically in terms of development and also mentally.

RM: How has the transition been from being the go to guy when you were in Indiana to now being the second or third option here in Miami?
JO: I left Indiana with the sole purpose of finding a better winning situation.  You know our run was over, so I wanted to get into a situation where I had the opportunity to win.  To me, it wasn’t about being the go to guy.  I could have stayed in Indiana and scored and scored, but its about trying to win.  Sometimes guys get locked into individual accomplishments and to me it wasn’t about the contract, it wasn’t about the money, All-Star games, All NBA teams, Nike commercials or any of that.  To me, it was about winning and getting into a healthier situation mentally.

RM: Is this the first time you’ve been in that type of veteran role, where people look up to you?  Its almost the exact opposite of your role in Portland.
JO: Yeah, the guys, I’m very up front with all of them.  I’m going to be honest with them, because I have experience.  Whether it’s my experience not playing, what it takes to be able to get to play, going through turmoil with your team or when things happen away from basketball or building yourself up to be a starter.  I feel like I’ve accomplished and went through every aspect that the pro basketball experience has to offer, and that’s be being involved in situations and having to make decisions on what to do, what not to do.  And a lot of it is..I would really say my career my career is textbook on what a professional goes through.

RM: And has any player in particular comes you and said Jermaine I need help on this or that?
JO: Oh yeah, guys talk to me a lot.  It’s been a lot of guys for a long time basically.  With guys like [Michael] Beasley now, he asks a lot of questions and a lot of guys ask certain questions about things and you know they feel comfortable with me.  I’ve been around.  Do you realize I’ve been playing basketball almost half of my life?

RM: I know, I did double check before I came out here[to interview you] and even though you’re only 31, you’ve been in the league since 1996.
JO: I know, right?

RM: Last question, how does the makeup of this team year’s team differ from last years?
JO: We’re a year older, we have more togetherness and we’re focused. We understand what we can do, and we’re happy about where we’re at.

At this point in the interview, I had one more question, but O’Neal politely told me he had to start shooting around warming up in preparation for the game.  He turned to one of the Verizon Center staffers, and asked them to go get his trademark headband from the locker room, then he shook my hand, and ran on to the court.

O’Neal had a quiet game that night (four points and seven rebounds in 32 minutes of play), but the six minutes he gave his time to me, spoke volumes.

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