Jermaine O''Neal: Dear Diary
O'Neal
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INDIANAPOLIS, Dec. 18 -- First of all, I'd like to thank the fans for your interest and support, and I hope you enjoy my diary. I'll update it as often as I can to help keep you up to speed with what's going on in my life.
Athletes get traded all the time, so it doesn't seem like that big a deal when it happens - unless you're one of the athletes who gets traded. While I am excited about the opportunity to start and play a prominent role for the Pacers, it wasn't easy to leave my friends and teammates in Portland after four years there. Plus, I had to move to a city I didn't know very well, and the fans weren't too sure about me at first.
A lot of people didn't know a whole lot about me, and they were upset with the organization for bringing me here. And that goes to show you should never judge a book by its cover. You shouldn't judge a guy before you actually get to see him and know what type of person he is. At first, I would be out in public and people would say how much they liked Dale, and how they wanted to see what I'd be able to do. But I'm a very nice guy, and I have the will to want to win, and now the fans are much more in my corner.
When I first moved to Indianapolis, I didn't know much about the city, but I did know that Indiana is a big basketball state. My new teammates made the transition much easier for me, as guys like Al (Harrington) and J.B. (Jonathan Bender) really helped me get used to the city, took me to different places, out to dinner, showed me around town. That really helped me feel welcome.
Of course, having a home would also help. I've been living in a hotel since I got here, but I'm moving out of it this week. I'm building a house, but I'm going to stay in an apartment until that gets done. Living in a hotel is different. You kind of notice small things after you've been there for a while. I have two rooms: one for all my clothes and boxes and stuff, and one that I live in. It's also hard to maintain your privacy because you're always coming in and out through the lobby, so everybody knows you're there.
Fortunately, my family members come to visit me as often as they can. My brother came up recently to visit for a while, and my mother came up - she comes up every month. And my brother is coming up next month to stay for good. My girlfriend and my daughter come up every two or three weeks because she's finishing up her last year at Portland State - she's studying architecture. At least once a month, everybody comes up for a visit.
Even so, I did get kind of lonely at Thanksgiving, because I was by myself. I told my mother to stay home, and my grandmother, and I told my girlfriend to stay home with her mother and her family. Jonathan invited me over to his house and I went over there after the game (the Pacers beat Washington 99-87) and we ate dinner and talked, and that was pretty cool.
Of course, being an NBA player, there isn't much time to feel lonely, especially with all my new teammates. It's a different group of guys than we had in Portland, where 10 or 12 guys would go do the same thing, like go to dinner or go to the movies. Here, the guys like to do different things. We have a lot of older guys who do like to do their own thing, but we have a lot of younger guys, too. Guys like J.B., Al and Lari Ketner, we're pretty much together all the time on the road.
People think players go out all the time on the road, but that's a major misconception. When you get into a city, you try to get a good dinner and get some rest. The NBA season is brutal, with all the weather and climate changes, and I'm real receptive to getting a cold. I've had a cold now for four weeks.
In fact, I had to blow my nose so hard that it blew out a bone in my sinuses and irritated my eye. I had been hit in the nose last year in Portland, and the same bone broke loose and when I blew my nose this time, it came loose again. My eyelid was almost swollen shut and I didn't think I'd be able to play against Charlotte (at home on Dec. 9).
But some of the veteran leaders, guys like Reggie Miller and Jalen Rose, convinced me in the locker room before the game that they really needed me out there, so I put my uniform on and did what I could. As it turned out, I played 38 minutes and blocked six shots and we won a big game 99-96 in overtime. After the game, one of the reporters asked me how I was able to block six shots with blurry vision and I said, 'I just put my hand out there and jumped as high as I could.'
The incident with my eye just showed how important it is to take care of your body all the time. You've got to know the right foods to eat, you've got to stay away from fast food, you've got to drink a lot of water and get a lot of rest to be able to compete. That takes priority over going out on the town when you're on the road. Unless you get into a city two nights before the game, maybe then you can go out and do something.
Take today, for example. We practiced for two hours in the morning, and then I had a mandatory weight-lifting session, showered, and then headed to the airport for the 4 o'clock flight to Chicago. By the time I get the hotel, I'm going to be ready for dinner and then get some sleep. You've got a game tomorrow so you've got to take care of your body.
I've played pretty well so far (averaging 13.8 points, 9.4 rebounds and 2.38 blocked shots in the first 24 games), and it feels good to know I'm going to start and play every night, but I know I can get a lot better.
People made a big deal about my matchup against Kevin Garnett on Saturday night in Minnesota, but, believe it or not, I didn't really think that much about it. I just wanted to win the game. (Ed. note: Jermaine scored a career-high 30 points and grabbed nine rebounds but the Pacers lost 113-110 in overtime.) It's always good to play against a guy of his caliber to test to see where you're at in your career. But it was more trying to get the win and unfortunately, it didn't happen for us.
A lot of people have compared us, maybe because we both came into the NBA early and we're both big guys with some skills, but I don't want to try to become like him. He's a great player, but he's his own type of player. I think we have a lot of similarities in terms of intensity, trying to get your team going and just trying to get the crowd pumped.
But I want to be like Jermaine O'Neal - the best player I can possibly be.
