The Illuminated Donkey

Super-Special Self-Parody Quiz! This week's New Yorker features the profile "A Man-Child in Lotusland: Inside the Big World of Shaquille O'Neal" by Rebecca Mead. In an opinion most likely unique among New Yorker profile subjects, O'Neal lists the Walter Matthau character from "The Bad News Bears" and Redd Foxx as the two non-relatives from history he'd most like to know.

With that in mind, which of the following obscure, graduate-level references does Mead not use in the article?

A. O'Neal, by contrast [to Michael Jordan] is solidly earthbound. (On the court, Kobe Bryant is Ariel to O'Neal's Caliban.)

B. The sight of [O'Neal] backing towards the basket, slowly shoving the opposing team's center, inch by inch, brings to mind nothing so much as Sisyphus endlessly rolling the rock up the hill.

C. [O'Neal] wears size-22 basketball shoes, which are made for him by a company called Starter. (When the Lakers' equipment manager carries the shoes into the locker room before a game, he cradles them in gentle arms, as if he were the nursemaid of Otus and Ephialtes, the twin giant sons of Poseidon.)

Post your guesses in the comments box; there's no prize or anything, but I'd like to get some comments.