*Do not stare at the King of Twitteronia if you are epileptic
I’m sure everyone out there is well aware of the newest social networking phenomenon Twitter. You may even have a Twitter account, at this point your Mom probably “Twitters." Twitter has “tweeted” its way into every facet of our world, from celebrities to athletes, even members of congress during President Obama’s congressional address were lovin' some Twitter –“OMG the Prez just dissed the GOP! LMAO”. Companies are now using it to get movie ideas from the masses and news outlets are using it to get immediate reports. Check out this ESPN the magazine article about Twitter and Sports News: http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3966691
Some of you may have heard this already but even Shaquille O’Neal is on twitter. I’m sure everyone by now has come across fake celebrity pages whether it’s on MySpace or Facebook, so many assumed twitter would be no different when they came across a twitter account for Shaq called THE_REAL_SHAQ. http://twitter.com/THE_REAL_SHAQ
Most people assumed it was some 15 year-old white kid from Sarasota, Florida, getting his jollies off misdemeanor identity theft. That theory was disproved when a few people followed up on THE_REAL_SHAQ’s “Tweets." Two guys in Phoenix decided to see if it really was “The Big Shaqtus” for real, so they followed his post saying he was going to a local diner.
It turned out it was REALLY the REAL SHAQ. He was engulfing an entire corner booth and enjoying a hearty meal. Long story short, the guys kept looking over to the table trying to muster up the courage to go talk to him. They then checked their twitter mobile account to see that Shaq had posted something along the lines of “I feel twitterers around me, r there any twitterers in 5 n diner wit me, say something." The dudes eventually got the balls to go over and talk to him and took some photos. You can read the whole story and see the pics here: http://sesquipedalis.blogspot.com/2009/02/finally-use-for-twitter.html
I think my favorite part of the story was that Shaq's order came to about $20 and he left a $160 tip. Then, he after paying he decided he wanted a sprite so he gave the server $40 for it. Say what you want to say about Shaq, but that story makes me like the guy even more. He may get my vote for most entertaining baller out there. Yes maybe even more than his Superman rival prodigy, Dwight Howard. His report with the media is unparalleled, and now to find out how well he treats the common non-immense human beings around him, all fans included, reinforces that Diesel might have to don the new nickname “The Big Friendly."
If you need any other explanation of why he deserves to be called MDE (most dominant ever) just take exhibit A: He was in Kazaam that’s just hilarious. Not to mention all his other roles...
Filmography
· Blue Chips (1994)
· Kazaam (1996) Nominated on "Rotten Tomatoes" as "The Worst Movie of All Time."
· Good Burger (1997)
· Steel (1997) Nominated on "Rotten Tomatoes" for "Worst Lead Actor Role"
· He Got Game (1998)
· A Great Day in Hip Hop (1998)
· The Wash (2001)
· Freddy Got Fingered (2001)
· After the Sunset (2004)
· Scary Movie 4 (2006) Nominated "Best Comedy" for the 2006 MTV Movie Awards
- The House Bunny (2008)Voted "Best Movie Poster" by The LA Premier
And you can’t deny his music career:
Discography
· Shaq Diesel (1993)
· Shaq Fu: Da Return (1994)
· You Can't Stop the Reign (1996)
· Respect (1998)
- Shaquille O'Neal Presents His Superfriends, Vol. 1 (Unreleased)
Quite possibly my favorite part about his “Shaqness” is just that, the pantheon of nicknames that he seemingly coins every night. What is your favorite Shaq nickname? Can you think of any worthy new ones? Right now I’m feeling “The Big Shaqtus”.
SHAQ ON HIS NICKNAMES:
“I want to be known as ‘The Big Shakespeare.’ It was Shakespeare that said, ‘Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, some have greatness thrust upon them.’”All this heaviness does not mean that I’m a monk. I’m an unorthodox type of guy, a funny guy—at least I think I’m funny. And one of the things I like to do is come up with nicknames for myself. Some of my personal favorites:
“The Big Stock Exchange.” I start off at one price. Every now and then I’ll go down, but eventually I’ll go back up.
“The Big IPO.” Put your money on me. Because when I go public, we all gonna make money.”
“The Big Aristotle” was coined the day I won the MVP last year [2000]. I stole a quote from that Greek philosopher cat: “Excellence is not a singular act, but a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.”
Can’t forget “The Big Antarctica” because I’m so cold.
Or “The Big Havlicek,” which is what I called myself after making a bunch of foul shots one night.
How about “The Big Felon” for when I made a steal against Orlando and had a breakaway dunk with 15 seconds left, forcing overtime of what would become a Lakers victory?
And, of course, “The Almighty Conceitedness.” That’s the highest level of arrogance. I made that up, too.
“If I were a painter, you’d be calling me Shaqcasso.”
“They call me the Big Sewer because I have a lot of shit in my game.”
-- Source: ShaqQuotes.com
Whatever you want to call him, he has solidified himself a spot in the basketball hall of fame. It has become clear that his new favorite site may have solidified its spot on the information superhighway as the new IT thing. To quote my sister, “Twitter is the new Facebook." That in itself may be reason enough for me to refrain from creating an account. However, I’ve been informed that GPSports is going to be starting one so keep an eye out for a link to that in the near future. I’m sure you will be able to get all sorts of up to the date tweets from there. TTYL!
