Shaq attacks verse in new TV series ‘Poetry in America’
LOS ANGELES — Shaquille O'neal called himself “The Big Baryshnikov” and “The Big Socrates” in his days in the NBA. Now he can add “The Big Shakespeare.”
The basketball Hallof-famer, TNT TV analyst, commercial pitchman and onetime rapper is putting poetry on his lengthy resume as part of a new public television series.
He brings his best bard to a dramatic reading of a poem in his episode of the 12-part “Poetry in America ,” then discusses it with Elisa New, a Harvard English professor who hosts the show.
“I've always been into poetry,” O'neal said in an interview with The Associated Press in a sunlit conference room overlooking the Los Angeles skyline. “I've been writing rhymes all my life.”
“Poetry in America,” distributed by American Public Television and presented by WGBH in Boston, is airing at various times on local public TV stations. Some episodes, including Shaq's, are already available to stream.
On the show the 46-yearold former All-star from the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat recites “Fast Break,” a poem by Edward Hirsch from his 1986 book “Wild Gratitude.” It describes some very imperfect players who manage to put together a perfect basketball play.
“A hook shot kisses the rim and hangs there, helplessly, but doesn't drop,” the poem begins, “and for once our gangly starting center boxes out his man.”
O'neal, whose 350-pound bulk would never be called “gangly,” still related to the center in the verse, but said he initially missed the poem's point.
“The first mistake I made was thinking it was about basketball,” he said. “I read it real quick I said ‘fast break, shovel passes, sure, this is what I do.”'