Shaquille O'Neal has deferred to his younger teammates on the Celtics this season, but he admitted on Tuesday night that it's hard for him not to be the focal point.

"It's hard not being in charge for me. It really is. But I got to accept it," O’Neal said said after Boston's win over Sacramento. "This is a good team. I'm not the only Hall-of-Famer hopeful here.

"If I was on a [expletive] team, I'd be pissed right now. Two points? I would have [expletive] somebody up in the locker room."

O'Neal has scored a total of 10 points in his last four games, including just three in the last two contests.

He says his transformation to role player began a few years ago in Miami.

"I started waning my CEO skills in Miami when I let Flash take over," O'Neal said of Dwyane Wade. "Then with LeBron [James] in Cleveland, I just laid back. In this world that we live in everyone wants the younger guys, the younger guys. So when I had my time, my span, I did it my way. I did it dominant. Nobody has done it more flamboyantly.

"And now, you know, it’s someone else’s turn."

He plans to stay with the Celtics through at least the end of his contract next season and clearly isn't concerned about his legacy.

"I don’t worry about my legacy," O’Neal said. "I look at it like this: There are certain guys that have legacies, and I’ve [expletive] tripled and quadrupled what the [expletive] they did, like Bill Walton. That’s how I look at it. Real talk. Everybody has a pen, so everybody’s going to say otherwise. But I know guys that got one [championship] and they got $60,000 speaking gigs off what they did 30 years ago. My legacy is straight. I don’t worry about it.

"I’ve prepared myself for [the end of his career] when I came in. For like the first 10 years my father would tell me, ‘You need to own some [stuff].’ I said, ‘Why? I make a lot of money.’ He said, ‘What if you hurt your knee or something?’ From then I’ve been in business mode. So I’ve been thinking about the day I’m done playing for a long time. And I’ll be fine.

"It will be real easy, real easy, real easy. Too easy."