Jermaine O'Neal will be filing a daily diary with NBA.com during his All-Star stay in Philly. Here's what he had to say about his first day in town.

February 8, 2002

I'm having the time of my life!

I've been through a lot in the last six years and to now be in this position where I'm considered one of the best is so exciting that I can't even really explain it to you. But I'm going to continue to enjoy the rest of the weekend and have a lot of fun.

I missed some games recently with a hyperextended left knee and then a sprained ankle, but I'm feeling better, a whole lot better. It was pretty shaky about a day and a half ago, but it's feeling pretty good right now. I would have been really mad if an injury kept me out of my first All-Star Game.

Even though we haven't played since Tuesday, I just got to Philadelphia this morning. I've been moving into my new home -- I built a new home. So I've been moving boxes and unpacking boxes until like, 4 o'clock this morning. So I only had about two hours of rest. I was really excited also about coming down here.

My daughter made the trip with me -- she's two years old. She's going to enjoy the All-Star Game also and she knows a whole lot about basketball. I had to bring her here for that. She went to sleep for two hours on the plane, so I had a chance to get some rest then also.

After I checked into the hotel, I've been doing interviews all day it seems like. Nike had a shoe for me and I had to go check out the shoe that they made for me. It's extremely nice. I'm going to wear it on Sunday so make sure you watch to check it out.

Everything's been going really well. I really haven't had a chance to do a whole lot. The big media session was cool. There were a lot of questions, sometimes a lot of the same question, but it's cool to be around these guys and see them outside of basketball, see the way they act and their personalities. It's been great so far.

I had a sandwich a while ago and I'm extremely hungry right now. I've been doing interviews all day -- now I'm doing more interviews and a photo session with the NBA. But I'm going to go shopping when I get through with this so I can see the city a little bit. I'll tell you about it tomorrow.