At 7-foot-1 and well over 300 pounds, Shaquille O'Neal's raw size and power has often overshadowed his basketball intelligence. Off the court, however, Shaq says his intelligence is something he wants to keep secret.
O'Neal acknowledged earlier this week that he feels he could hang with some of the world's best and brightest at local esteemed colleges like Harvard and MIT — if only he wasn't trying to secure an NBA title with the Celtics.
"If I wanted to, I could attend a couple of classes at Harvard and hold my own," Shaq told the Boston Herald on Monday. "That's how smart I am. I could even go to MIT if I had enough time, and actually hold my own. Those Harvard and MIT guys, those are like Bill Gates and guys like that. They're brilliant minds."
O'Neal furthered his disposition by saying that he is a "camouflage geek," explaining that he doesn't want people to know he's actually smart.
"I like to put everything in a basketball sense," he said. "But if you see someone do just one thing, that's all you think they can do. So I just do what I do, and that's all people think I can do, but nobody knows how many businesses I own. Nobody knows how many commercials I've created."
Not only does O'Neal insist he doesn't want many people knowing about his smarts, he made it quite clear that he'll only really use them if he can benefit from it.
"I'm not going to do it unless it can help me," he continued. "I don't wan't to do it just to see if I can do it. If it's not going to help me toward a doctorate or another degeree, I'm not going to do it."
It might be awhile before we see "The Big Prosecutor" or "The Big Engineer."
NESN.com will showcase one Moment of Shaq every day until the Celtics open the season against the Heat on Oct. 26 at the TD Garden.
Monday, Oct. 4: Shaq becomes Dracula
