Shaq, Zo Still Aim To Quiet 'Doubters'

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">MIAMI ? A little more than a week from today, Heat centers Shaquille O'Neal and Alonzo Mourning will oil their rusty joints and begin the sometimes mind-numbing grind of the 82-game regular season.

For O'Neal, this is the 15th year in a career that arguably places him among the 10 best to ever play the game. For Mourning, it's the 14th year in a probable Hall of Fame career. Their greatness has been established.

That's why it's so strange O'Neal and Mourning, the best center tandem in the NBA, still proudly use the worn-out adage of "doubters" as motivation. And they love proving doubters wrong.

"If I would have listened to all those other people that said I should have stopped a long time ago, especially after I had to go through what I had to go through physically ... I wouldn't have been successful here last year," Mourning said.

Both players contend winning is their No.'1 motivational factor, and there's little question that's true. But the "doubters" thing might be their No.'2 motivational factor, which seems bizarre even in light of the players' fierce competitive spirit.

Rumors of O'Neal's demise were strong in 2004, when he was overweight and his Los Angeles Lakers lost to Detroit in the NBA Finals. To him, they're the same type of doubts he heard while collecting all four of his NBA titles.

"''He's got one, can he get two?''" O'Neal said, mimicking his doubters. "''He's got two, can he get three? All right, he's got three, can he get four? He can't get four. ... Get him out of here. Oh, he won't get one in Miami.'

"For me it's always about starting all over. Now that I've got one I'm sure everybody's saying, 'He's old; he's not going to get two in Miami.''"</div>

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