Shaquille O’Neal He is remembered for being one of the best players in the history of the NBA, added to being absolutely dominant on both sides of the court. However, The Big Diesel shared one of the anecdotes that changed his life as a basketball player, because he ended up smashing a basketball hoop after his father hit it.
The impact of Shaq’s father
“It’s a true story, once had 45 points In high school, with three quarters still to go, we played against some little guys. He was supposed to nail her, but he didn’t want to. I made a layup and missed. My father ran to the floor like a ‘sergeant’ and yelled at me ‘take a time out’“Shaquille O’Neal recounted for Player’s Tribune.
“I go outside and my father says to me: ‘What are you doing?’ and I told him that I was practicing my skills as Doctor J (Julius Erving) or Magic (Johnson) and all of a sudden it hit me. ‘You’re not Magic or Dr J, you’re Shaq.’ That’s why every time he hung me by the hoop I wanted to break it, because he was mad at my dad.”
Posteriorly, O’Neal confessed that the first time he broke a basketball hoop was precisely the day his father hit him on the court. Soon after, he turned to his dad with a tear in his eye, who was looking at him with a “yeah that’s what you should be doing” look.
Finally, Shaq confessed that the first time his father congratulated him for having played well was until he won his first NBA championship, in the 1999/2000 season with the Los Angeles Lakers. Well, to date, he considers that his father was that demanding because “he loved basketball too much.”
