Shaq: Deion Compares to Lakers & Knicks' Phil Jackson

Shaquille O'Neal says that Deion Sanders is reminding him of a legendary Knicks and NBA figure: Phil Jackson.

If you ask Deion Sanders, the Dallas Cowboys and NFL legend, about being "The Next'' anything, we can promise you, having covered his career for 33 years, is quick and colorful retort is likely to be something like, "I'm the First Deion.''

Still, these sort of comparisons are meant to be flattering. And as "Coach Prime'' and his Colorado Buffaloes continue taking the sports world by storm by starting the season 3-0 driven in large part by Sanders' charisma, Shaquille O'Neal has come up with a beauty ... saying that Sanders is reminding him of a legendary head coach.

“When they were down 15, there was a camera that panned to Deion’s face, and it reminded me of Phil Jackson," O'Neal said in an interview with TMZ Sports. "And I’ve always said, if the general doesn’t panic, the troops don’t panic."

Deion Sanders is that "general'' for the Buffs now, just as Shaq is saying that Jackson, the former New York Knicks player and executive, was.

Deion, of course, has a long way to go as a coach before he can match the almost unmatchable Jackson is terms of title success, with Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls and then, to Shaq's personal prism, with the move to Los Angeles and the Lakers, where - thanks largely to Shaq and Kobe Bryant - more title success followed.

“I know exactly what the kids are going through because when you are standing in front of someone that has an impressive resume, and you’re trying to get to the level he get to, everything you say is golden,” O'Neal said about Sanders and Colorado. “I felt that way when Phil Jackson first came to the Lakers."