DEEP DOWN, SAN ANTONIO (LOVES) SHAQ.Byline: KAREN CROUSE SAN ANTONIO San Antonio (săn ăntō`nēō, əntōn`), city (1990 pop. 935,933), seat of Bexar co., S central Tex., at the source of the San Antonio River; inc. 1837. - Doug Smith Doug Smith may refer to:
Noun Old-fashioned, informal people of the highest social standing . ``I'm sure it's here somewhere.'' A few minutes later a bell sounded, signaling the end of the first period of classes, and Smith grudgingly gave up the search. He had to hurry off to homeroom home·room n. A school classroom to which a group of pupils of the same grade are required to report each day. Noun 1. homeroom . So it was the button that read ``I (heart) Shaquille'' that remained buried somewhere, much like this city's affection for the finest prep basketball player ever to emerge from any of its schools. Had Smith stumbled upon the button, a relic dating back to circa 1988, he would have been smart enough not to pin the old thing on his shirt. Not now. Not with Shaquille O'Neal's Lakers invading the Alamodome today to take on a Spurs squad that laps more parts of this city than the San Antonio River
The San Antonio River is a major waterway that originates in central Texas near San Antonio and follows a roughly southeastern path through the state. . It doesn't matter that O'Neal put Cole, a small school on the Fort Sam Houston Fort Sam Houston, U.S. army base, 3,300 acres (1,335 hectares), S Tex., in San Antonio; headquarters of the Fifth Army. San Antonio, long a military center, donated land in 1870 for the site of a permanent military post that was constructed from 1876 to 1890 and base, on the city's map in the late 1980s. The Cougars' 32-1 record in 1988, O'Neal's junior year, and their 36-0 season and Class 3A state title in 1989 have won O'Neal little love from San Antonians who remember mainly that he left them, first to attend LSU LSU Louisiana State University LSU Large Subunit LSU La Salle University (Philadelphia, PA) LSU La Sierra University LSU Link State Update (OSPF) LSU Learning Support Unit and then to play for the Orlando Magic The Orlando Magic is a professional basketball team based in Orlando, Florida. They play in the National Basketball Association (NBA). History Early years The Orlando Magic officially entered the NBA as an expansion franchise in 1989. and, for the past five years, the Years, The the seven decades of Eleanor Pargiter’s life. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 1109] See : Time Lakers. It was bad enough when O'Neal lived and worked in Orlando, but L.A.? The feeling in southern Texas about Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, can be summed up thusly thus·ly adv. Usage Problem Thus. Usage Note: Thusly was introduced in the 19th century as an alternative to thus in sentences such as Hold it thus or He put it thus. : You can't spell plastic without L.A. In the eyes of myopic my·o·pi·a n. 1. A visual defect in which distant objects appear blurred because their images are focused in front of the retina rather than on it; nearsightedness. Also called short sight. 2. San Antonians, O'Neal couldn't have strayed any farther from the roots his father Philip put down when he was stationed at Fort Sam Houston. As of Friday afternoon, it didn't appear O'Neal was going to be able to retrace those roots unless he hoofed it or cabbed it. Cole High basketball coach Herb More stopped by a local luxury-car dealership on O'Neal's behalf the other day, to see whether the Lakers center could rent some nice wheels while he was here for Games 1 and 2 of the Western Conference finals. Of course, O'Neal could have rented a limousine and driver but he was really hoping to slip back into town as quietly as spring. This is, after all, a business trip. The guy in charge responded as if an acquaintance of Jesse James had come by looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. a horse. ``We provide cars to some of the Spurs,'' the man said, ``and that would be a slap in the face to them if we rented one to Shaq.'' More didn't say anything. He's a math teacher, you see. He figured he'd leave it to those with English degrees to explain to the man the difference between the words loyal and petty. More, 37, was the first standout basketball player Cole produced and the only one until O'Neal came along. He was an assistant coach at the school during O'Neal's senior year. Like Greg Foster Greg Foster may refer to:
Medieval weapon consisting of a heavy timber with a metal knob or point at the front. Rams were used to beat down the gates or walls of a besieged city or castle. during practices. He has remained friends with O'Neal through the years. Indeed, he is one of the precious few people O'Neal trusts enough to let his guard down around. More never has asked O'Neal for anything - not even a single ticket to see O'Neal play in the NBA NBA abbr. 1. National Basketball Association 2. National Boxing Association NBA (US) n abbr (= National Basketball Association) → Basketball-Dachverband (= . To those in his inner circle who ask nothing of O'Neal, he is apt to give much. He supplies Cole High with much of its basketball gear. He leaves More tickets to Spurs games whenever he's in town with the Lakers. Twice this season he has flown More and some buddies to L.A., put them up at a luxury hotel, provided them with a driver and limousine and introduced them to a city few people in L.A. see outside the pages of glossy magazines. More happened to be off camera on the set of David Letterman's show last summer when O'Neal called the Spurs ``a WNBA WNBA Women's National Basketball Association WNBA World Ninepin Bowling Association WNBA Wannabe Nasty Boys Association WNBA Women's National Book Association, Inc. WNBA Warszawski Nurt Basketu Amatorskiego team.'' He cringed, knowing that comment would be about as welcome as humidity here. ``Some of the things he says and does, I think he's just trying to create a controversy to sell tickets,'' More said. ``When he's in his surroundings, in his home, he's much the same person he was at Cole. He jokes around and we shoot the breeze about old times. Every conversation I have with Shaquille ends with him saying `I love you.' '' The kind, gentle giant is the O'Neal they remember at Cole. The one who boasts about bedding supermodels and athletes and actresses and bags on David Robinson every chance he gets they see as some Hollywood image maker's monster creation. Sue Rowland taught O'Neal math his first year at the school. Her son, Brett, graduated with O'Neal from Cole in 1989. When Rowland was married in the summer of 1996, O'Neal offered Rowland and his bride the use of his condominium in Orlando for their honeymoon. ``That's the Shaquille I remember,'' Sue Rowland said. ``The Shaq that projects the image we here see as Hollywood, I don't recognize.'' Rowland and other teachers described the O'Neal they knew as a teen-ager who was exceptionally mature for his age and exceedingly polite. Who got on his classmates Classmates can refer to either:
``The students would go off (the base) and people would ask them where they went to school. When they said Cole, the reaction would be, `Where's that?' It was kind of depressing,'' Smith said. ``Once Shaquille got here, he was such a dominating force. It gave the school a lot of recognition.'' O'Neal averaged 31.2 points as a senior. The only time he created a stir was on the basketball court. In those days, Superman still had a lot of Clark Kent in him. ``Shaquille was so well-mannered,'' Smith said. ``I say that in all seriousness. He had a maturity that other kids his age didn't have. ``He never was in any kind of trouble, he never caused any kind of controversy to my knowledge. If he had, we probably all would have fell over in a dead faint.'' At Cole, they've been tempted to reach for the smelling salts smelling salts: see ammonia. a few times since O'Neal turned pro and became overtly anti-David Robinson. Robinson was O'Neal's favorite player right up until the day O'Neal, who was a student at Cole at the time, asked for his autograph. Robinson obliged him but ``dogged'' him, in O'Neal's eyes, by not stopping to make eye contact or chitchat. O'Neal's recently published autobiography, ``Shaq Talks Back,'' could have been subtitled ``Shaq Talks Smack'' for all the insults he directed at Robinson. O'Neal might as well have been desecrating the Alamo Alamo Eighteenth-century mission in San Antonio, Texas, site of a historic siege of a small group of Texans by a Mexican army (1836) during the Texas war for independence from Mexico. . This city's heart beats for Robinson, a do-gooder who just happens to be a future Hall of Famer. Robinson owns San Antonio. O'Neal, despite leaving a sizable footprint, will always be treated as though he merely passed through here on his way to bigger and better things. The sooner O'Neal learns not to take San Antonio's cold shoulder personally, the sooner the city will warm to him. If he would give Robinson a hug before today's opening tip, that would be a great start. Hey, O'Neal's not going to replace Robinson in San Antonians' hearts so he might as well embrace him. ``He told me once, `When I go to San Antonio, I get booed more than anywhere else,' '' More said. ``I think he's kind of resented that it happens. I try to tell him, I don't think it's personal. People here are just crazy about the Spurs.'' O'Neal historically has struggled against the Spurs in San Antonio. He missed 16 of 30 shots in two regular-season games at the Alamodome this season while averaging 17.5 points. ``I think he puts more pressure on himself when he plays here,'' More said. ``I think he's trying to prove a point to people.'' The people he left behind here wish O'Neal would make more of an effort to show he's not really the person he becomes when the radio microphone switches on, the television cameras start rolling or the director yells ``Action.'' ``I've had a hard time defending him in this town because of some of the things he's said recently,'' Rowland said. ``I've really been hurt by some of the projections he's shown lately. I don't remember Shaq being self-centered like that in high school.'' Said More, sighing, ``When you have that much money and that many people telling you you're the best, it's hard not for it to affect you.'' More was standing in the foyer of the indoor gymnasium that hasn't changed appreciably since he or O'Neal starred there. It's still small, but because of O'Neal's legacy, the kids who play there now dare to dream big. ``When my father told me we were moving to Texas, I wasn't too happy at first,'' said J.R. Knowlton, a junior point guard who's finishing up his first year at Cole. ``Then he told me I'd be going to Shaq's school and I was excited after that.'' At its core, Cole (heart) Shaquille, even if a ``Go Spurs Go'' poster hangs on one wall in the administrative office. As for that button, Smith fully intends to find it some day. There was a reason, you see, that he tucked it away for safekeeping Safekeeping The storage of assets or other items of value in a protected area. Notes: Individuals may use self-directed methods of safekeeping or the services of a bank or brokerage firm. in the first place. ``I thought I'd save it for 20 years and then send it to Shaquille,'' he said. Now is when O'Neal could really use it. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Shaquille O'Neal, pictured grabbing a rebound in 1989, put Cole High in San Antonio on the basketball map. Courtesy San Antonio Express-News The San Antonio Express-News is the daily newspaper of San Antonio, Texas. It is ranked as the third-largest daily newspaper in the state of Texas in terms of circulation, and is one of the leading news sources of South Texas, with offices in Austin, Brownsville, Laredo, and |
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