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Tue, Nov 4th 2008, 10:25
O’Neal brings Raptors newfound swagger
Jermaine O’Neal has it. It practically oozes out of him, from his red headband to his broad shoulders right on down to his giant feet. O’Neal has swagger.
He is a six-time NBA all-star with an all-world ego. He is a bear of a man.
And he talks a big game on the basketball court, and backs it up with big-time blocks and rim-rattling dunks and a demeanour that almost seems to defy his opponents to test him.
O’Neal believes in O’Neal. And he believes that the 2008-09 Toronto Raptors, with their perfect 3-0 record – and 79 more regular season games left to play – are getting in touch with their inner swagger. O’Neal says he could see it starting to seep through in Philadelphia last week, and at home to Golden State on Halloween night and in Milwaukee over the weekend.
Instead of talking about going out and doing their best to win in the pre-game huddle before those games, the chatter was about how each game was one they had to win – and should win – and how every player believed that they would.
“We believe that we are better than the other team – whether we are right or wrong – as long as we mentally believe, we are giving ourselves a shot every single night,” O’Neal said Monday. “If we don’t believe we can play with whomever, we won’t win.”
The evidence of swagger abounds. O’Neal used to come to Toronto as a visiting player with the Indiana Pacers and, win or lose, he knew the game would be a relatively easy night for his body. Crashing and banging and fighting for every inch of space on the floor was not what the Raptors did.
They were soft, O’Neal says. They had no swagger.
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