
Age: 54
male
Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal (born March 6, 1972), nicknamed "Shaq”, is an American former professional basketball player who is a sports analyst on the television program Inside the NBA on TNT. Standing 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m) tall and weighing 325 pounds (147 kg), he is one of the heaviest players ever to play in the NBA. Throughout his 18-year career, O'Neal has used his size and strength to overpower opponents for points and rebounds. After the retirement of Lindsey Hunter on March 5, 2010, O'Neal became the oldest active player in the NBA. Following a standout career at Louisiana State University, O'Neal was drafted by the Orlando Magic with the first overall pick in the 1992 NBA Draft. He quickly became one of the top centers in the league, winning Rookie of the Year in 1992–93 and later leading his team to the 1995 NBA Finals. After four years with the Magic, O'Neal signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Lakers. He won three consecutive championships, playing alongside Kobe Bryant, in 2000, 2001, and 2002. O'Neal's relationship with Bryant eventually declined into a feud, leading to O'Neal's trade to the Miami Heat in 2004. A fourth NBA championship followed in 2006. Midway through the 2007-2008 season he was traded to the Phoenix Suns. After a season-and-a-half with the Suns, O'Neal was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he played alongside LeBron James in the 2009–10 season. O'Neal played for the Boston Celtics in the 2010–11 season. O'Neal's individual accolades include the 1999–00 MVP award, the 1992–93 NBA Rookie of the Year award, 15 All-Star game selections, three All-Star Game MVP awards, three Finals MVP awards, two scoring titles, 14 All-NBA team selections, and three NBA All-Defensive Team selections. He is one of only three players to win NBA MVP, All-Star game MVP and Finals MVP awards in the same year (2000); the other players are Willis Reed in 1970 and Michael Jordan in 1996 and 1998. He ranks 5th all-time in points scored, 5th in field goals, 12th in rebounds, and 7th in blocks. In addition to his basketball career, O'Neal has released four rap albums, with his first, Shaq Diesel, going platinum. He has appeared in numerous films and has starred in his own reality shows, Shaq's Big Challenge and Shaq Vs. Description above from the Wikipedia article Shaquille O'Neal, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

In 479 BC, one year after the Battle of Thermopylae, Dilios, a hoplite in the Spartan Army, begins his story by depicting the life of Leonidas I from childhood to kingship via Spartan doctrine. Dilios's story continues and a Persian herald arrives at the gates of Sparta demanding "earth and water" as a token of submission to King Xerxes—the Spartans reply by throwing the envoy and his escort into a deep well. Leonidas then visits the Ephors, proposing a strategy to drive back the numerically superior Persians through the Hot Gates. His plan involves building a wall in order to funnel the Persians into a narrow pass between the rocks and the sea: negating the Persian advantage in numbers, and giving Greeks heavy infantry the advantage over the vast waves of Persian light infantry. The Ephors consult the Oracle, who decrees that Sparta will not go to war during the Carneia. As Leonidas angrily departs, an agent from Xerxes appears, rewarding the Ephors for their covert support.
