When you’ve played 20 headlining seasons in the NBA, won four championships, been Finals MVP on three occasions and were a 15-time All-Star, there’s a lot to look back upon.
But in those personal moments Shaquille O’Neal can’t help but keep going back to a certain afternoon as a 10-year-old kid. Well, a 10-year-old very big kid.
“I was averaging 40-50 points in a youth league that my father had me in and a lot of the other parents would say, ‘There’s no way he’s 10 years old,’ ” O’Neal recalled with a chuckle. “They used to almost fistfight because my father couldn’t produce my birth certificate. They’d yell, ‘He’s not 10!’
“Then one day there was this guy watching us play and I was dominating his son. So he pulls his son aside and I hear him say, ‘If this kid’s 10 years old, he’s gonna be one of the best NBA players ever to play the game.’ I’ve always remembered that, because as a kid that was a big thing and it pushed me on to reach that potential.”
There will come a time when the big man runs through his personal list of people who helped get him into the pantheon of the greats. But in the run-up to the official induction ceremony for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Sept. 9, it’s those early days learning the game that bubble to the surface for O’Neal in a reflective conversation.
“My father saw how athletic I was as a youngster and he said, “I’m gonna make you just as good as Bill (Russell), Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar) and Wilt (Chamberlain). He always stressed those names and, honestly, I had no idea who he was talking about, because I was a Dr. J (Julius Erving) guy and then I became a Magic Johnson guy. Then when I became bigger in high school I gravitated toward Patrick Ewing and David Robinson and Hakeem Olajuwon and those guys.
“Growing up I always thought I was gonna top out at about 6-6. Then it moved up to 6-9. ‘OK, forget Dr. J, now I’m Magic.’ Then one summer I woke up and I was 7-1 and I thought, ‘It’s all gone.’ I guess Dad was right. I’m a big man.’
“But I think that’s why I had pretty good touch and pretty good skills because I trained myself all those years as a guard. My father trained me as a big man, but when he wasn’t looking I trained myself as a guard. I dribbled behind the back, fancy passes and all that because I thought I was gonna be no more than 6-9.
“Yeah, I remember it well. The first shot he taught me was the skyhook. I’d say, ‘But Dad, all the other kids are laughing at me.’ He’d say, ‘Just shoot it.’ Then I kinda got away from that and moved toward the jump hook like Patrick Ewing. That hook was the first move he taught me. He showed me how to pivot, how to spin and do all that.”
Many of those moves that enabled O’Neal to lead Cole High in San Antonio to a 68-1 record over two seasons and the state title in his senior year were the result of the late Sgt. Phillip Harrison always expecting and demanding more from his son.
“Me being able to go on an Army base and play against grown men every day, I think that helped me,” O’Neal said. “It helped me with my mental development. It helped me with my physical skills. My father wouldn’t allow me to play against guys my age, because they were all small. He wanted me to play against guys that were stronger than me and knew the game.
“After practicing with the guys on the base, I had to go home and help cook and help clean. Then I would have an hour to run to the gym, play two or three more games in order to be back before it was dark. So me having the opportunity during those years in San Antonio, taught me to withstand everything and it helped get me to the next level.”
It was his hard-driving father who also instilled the sense of showmanship into a young Shaq that made him endearing as much as overpowering.
“My job was just to go out and play a certain way,” O’Neal said. “I tried to mix being dominant and entertaining every game. There was a time when my father took me to a game and it was a terrible game and he was very upset because he had had to borrow the money to get tickets. So on the way back home, he turns to me and says, ‘If you ever make it to this level, make sure you entertain the people.’ I asked him why, said I just wanted to play basketball. But he said, ‘No, you can’t do that. Lots of people, especially fathers, bring their sons and daughters to the game and a lot of them can hardly afford these high priced tickets to the pay these high priced athletes. So make sure you justify what they pay by giving them a good show.’ ”
It was the fun-loving side that opened O’Neal up to criticism when he didn’t immediately begin devouring championships upon entering the NBA in 1992 with the Orlando Magic. Finally winning that first title in 2000 with the Los Angeles Lakers was sweet and one memorable photo in the aftermath of the win showed a single tear of joy running down O’Neal’s cheek.
“Because I took a lot of criticism for enjoying life,” O’Neal said. “That tear was just, ‘OK, maybe I can enjoy life and also take care of business.’ A lot of times when you have fun and don’t accomplish a goal, you guys (media) do your job and you read about it and at one point I think I started to believe it. Maybe I shouldn’t do movies or shouldn’t do rap albums or shouldn’t shoe commercials during the season. But I stuck to having fun, doing what I’m doing and I realized that if you just work a lot harder and have the right people and pieces in place, anything can be accomplished.”
The one accomplishment that eluded him was being selected for the 1992 USA Olympic Dream Team that included the legends Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. O’Neal eventually led Team USA to the gold medal at the 1994 World Championships and got gold again at the 1996 Olympics.
“I said it before and I’ll say it again: Dream Team II could definitely beat Dream Team I. Period.” O’Neal said. “I know there’s gonna be a lot of guys hear that and won’t agree. But I was pissed off at that point, because I felt I should have been on Dream Team I. I do agree Christian Laettner was a better college player and I’m not mad at the selection. But I definitely wanted to be on that team.
“Since I wasn’t on that team, when I got on Dream Team II in Atlanta, I had to help make sure we were not a flop. So we did the same thing Dream Team I did, killed them all by 30 and 40 points and won the Olympic gold medal. I was upset and a little bit jealous that I was not on Dream Team I, so I had to go and represent.”
After representing as a towering presence and endearing character for two decades that now seem gone in a flash, what’s left is an official induction that has long been a foregone conclusion.
“As a player I never thought about the Hall of Fame,” O’Neal said. “It wasn’t till I got done that it entered my mind. When I was playing I was too busy trying to be dominant. Now though, I’m really looking forward to my speech. I don’t want to give it all away. But there are a lot of people to mention and so much to say.”
Fran Blinebury has covered the NBA since 1977. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter.
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