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What: “Up Close Special With Roy Firestone”

Where: ESPN, today, 4 p.m.

With the Lakers grabbing so much media attention these days, there is a chance of being overdosed on Shaquille O’Neal. But the interview he did with Roy Firestone for this special edition of “Up Close” is definitely worth watching. So is an Alonzo Mourning interview that makes up the second half of the one-hour show.

O’Neal talks about his conditioning--”I was always in shape; those media guys are always just making up stuff.” He talks about Kobe--”Of course I like him.” And offers a definition of a great player that he says he got from John Wooden--”A great player makes players around him better.”

O’Neal also takes Firestone on a ride in the private jet he leases.

Asked what he would like to do after basketball, O’Neal suggests law enforcement. “Being a sheriff in a small town,” he says with a straight face.

The segment on Mourning is a moving one, a look at a sports superstar who had to deal with learning he had a devastating disease and how the experience made him a better and more caring person.

When Mourning went to pick up his first prescription, he was hit with a $1,000 bill for a month’s worth of pills. “I knew a lot of people could not afford this medicine,” he says in explaining why he founded Zo’s Fund for Life to help victims of kidney diseases. He quickly raised $2 million. Karl Malone and Grant Hill each donated $100,000, and other players came through as well. Mourning matched the $2 million with $2 million of his own money.