I met Shaquille O'Neal once. It was at one of the SEC tournaments, either in 1990 or 1991. I spent a lot of my time with the Vanderbilt basketball players and one of my best friends there was a center on the team. He was "only" 6'11" and was not skinny. In any event, I was used to spending a lot of time around very tall, big people.

And I couldn't believe just how big Shaquille O'Neal was when he shook my hand. He was just a giant of a man. With the benefit of hindsight, I'm pretty sure it was more than just his physical size--he had an amazing presence and charisma about him that made him, well, larger than life.

I have enjoyed watching him play and though I understood why teams played "Hack-a-Shaq" during his prime years, it made me sad because I would have loved to see what he could do if he were ever allowed to get into the flow of the games for the whole season rather than fighting off fouls all the time, and the pain that came with them, because most of those guys weren't just giving him love taps.