In this April 13, 2018 photo, Shaquille O’Neal poses for a picture in Los Angeles. The basketball icon-turned-TV personality is adding poetry to his resume as one of the stars of the new public television series “Poetry in America.” (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
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 Hall-of-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-year-old 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.’”
He said New, who sat next to O’Neal in the interview and like almost everyone is utterly dwarfed by him, gave him whole new insights that led to a fast friendship.
“When she broke it down intelligently for me, I was very astounded and very amazed,” O’Neal said.
The poem is written for a close friend and playing partner of Hirsch’s who had just died. That’s easy to miss if you skip past the dedication at the top, as most readers do.
“It’s fun that only later as you’re reading, you look back at that dedication,” New said. “One line can change everything.”
Suddenly it becomes an examination of transcendent moments and human connections.
“It’s about friendship, it’s about caring, it’s about emotions,” O’Neal said. “I had missed that.”
His latest learning experience took O’Neal’s thoughts back to high school, where he had a 69 percent in English after blowing a test during the basketball playoffs, and needed a 70 to stay eligible for sports.
The teacher allowed him a retest, and suggested a tutor.
“This guy, his name was McDougal, he was a geek, he saved my academic life,” O’Neal said. “Everybody bullied him in school, except me.”
O’Neal said he took the work and “broke it down, made it seem so simple.”
“I retook the test, got an 80, and we won the state championship,” O’Neal said.
“Now,” he said, “I always tell kids I’m a geek.”
The professor had another name for him. “He’s a learner!”
O’Neal partly looked the poet during the interview in a polo shirt and jeans, having traded his basketball sneakers for a pair of slip-on Toms shoes, size 22.
When he wanted them, a company executive told him “it wouldn’t be worth it to make them in my size unless I bought 500 of them,” O’Neal said. “I told him to give me 2,000.”