Rebound and Circumstance

December 25, 2000

Shaquille O'Neal, who received an excused absence from the Lakers' win over Vancouver last Friday night to attend his graduation from LSU, says he's not done hitting the books. "I want to take the LSATs," O'Neal says of the law-school entrance exam. "It will help me do what I want to do." Which is? "I would like to run for sheriff of Orlando's Orange County," says O'Neal. "If not that, I want to be involved in law enforcement somehow." He's being serious: O'Neal spent as many as three days a week last summer riding with Orlando officers in the stolen-car division. "One night they caught a guy with 15 stolen cars," says O'Neal. How did the thief react when he saw the 7'1", 315-pound O'Neal hovering over him? "He never saw me. I never got out of the car." Never let it be said that Shaq Daddy doesn't know when to let his teammates carry the load.