Shaq Accused of Stalking Former Mistress

I'm ordinarily not that interested in the private lives of professional athletes, but when they intersect with the courtroom, they're hard to ignore. TMZ passes along the news that an Atlanta woman named Alexis Miller has been granted a restraining order against Shaquille O'Neal after Shaq allegedly harassed and threatened Miller. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (via Deadspin) corroborates the story:

Judge Richard Hicks granted Alexis Miller's request on Thursday after reviewing her claims that the NBA star threatened her with bodily harm and made harassing phone calls in which he would breathe heavily into the phone before hanging up.

Miller, a 23-year-old independent music artist professionally known as Maryjane, also alleged that O'Neal, 36, threatened to ruin her career by having her blackballed after Miller ended an intimate relationship between the two last month.

Shaq breathing heavy? Go figure. TMZ has the text of some of the threatening emails that Shaq allegedly sent; I'm not going to re-print them here, but if it's really him, he looks really, really bad (and not just because of the atrocious grammar).

The timing of the alleged break-up is interesting, especially in the context of Shaq's previously estranged wife announcing earlier this week that the couple had reconciled and planned on canceling their divorce. Maybe there was a reason Shaq wanted to get back together? It'll be interesting to see Shaq's response -- now that a judge is involved, he may not want to say something he can't repeat if put under oath.