NBA star Shaquille O’Neal will have a little longer to wait before answering allegations that he stalked an Atlanta woman.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Karen Woodson has granted a request for a continuance to Sept. 16 before hearing Alexis Miller’s request for a permanent restraining order against the 7-foot-1, 325-pound center. Both parties had been slated for mandatory court appearance on Thursday morning.

O’Neal is also accused of threatening Miller via e-mail and making harassing calls, breathing heavily into the phone, after she broke off a relationship with him in July.

Judge Richard Hicks issued a temporary restraining order on Aug. 21, preventing O’Neal from having any contact or even coming within 200 yards of Miller or her 19-month-old son. Miller had sought the motion, claiming that O’Neal had not only stalked her, but threatened her via e-mail while also threatening to ruin her career by having her “blackballed”.

O’Neal, who resides in Florida, is not the father of the child, said L. David Wolfe, Miller’s Atlanta-based attorney.

Miller, a little-known, 23-year-old hip-hop artist known professionally as Maryjane, claimed she ended an intimate relationship with O’Neal in July.

O’Neal has played 16 NBA seasons, winning three league championships with the Lakers (2000, 2001 and 2002) and another with the Miami Heat (2006). He was traded to the Phoenix Suns in February. O’Neal filed for divorce from his wife Shaunie in 2007, but has indicated plans to reconcile with her.

— John Hollis