Shaquille O'Neal

1972-

American basketball player

Shaquille O'Neal represents professional basketball in the third millennium. At seven-feet-one-inch tall and 335 pounds, he dominates a basketball court with little effort. His combination of size, strength, height, and speed is rare. His hulking presence is distinctive and unmistakable even among his peers, the so-called big men of basketball. A giant of a man, he put a new slant on the celebrity status of living large, when as a 19-year-old draft pick in the National Basketball Association (NBA) he signed the largest rookie contract in the history of professional basketball. Yet without spending a dime of his NBA salary, he embarked on a luxurious lifestyle funded exclusively from endorsement contracts and personal ventures. O'Neal, who moonlights as a recording artist, movie star, and television director, is an Olympic gold medallist and on multiple occasions a most valuable player (MVP) honoree. By his eleventh year in the league he was sporting three NBA championship rings. Off the court he is known to flash an ear-to-ear grin and to emote the unflappable personality of a 12-year-old boy.

Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal was born in Newark, New Jersey, on March 6, 1972. He weighed an unremarkable 7-pounds-13-ounces and was named for an Islamic phrase that means "Little Warrior." His parents, Lucille O'Neal and Joe Toney, never married. Toney, who was a student at Seton Hall University at the time of O'Neal's birth, parted ways with his new family soon afterward. O'Neal then lived with his mother at the residence of his grandmother, Odessa Chamblis, at 100 Oak Street in Jersey City. As the three generations lived together, Chamblis worked as a nurse, and her daughter worked at city hall.

When O'Neal was two years old his mother married Philip Harrison, a sergeant in the U.S. Army. The new Harrison family bonded firmly. With O'Neal as the eldest sibling, Harrison's daughters Ayesha and Lateefa became step-sisters to O'Neal; a younger brother, Jamal was born later to the Harrisons. The family moved often, going from Newark to Bayonne when O'Neal was only five, then on to Eatontown. He was in the fifth grade when they arrived at Ft. Stewart, California. When he was in junior high school the family moved overseas, to Europe. After a brief stay in Wiesbaden, Germany, they spent a few years in Wildflecken.

Can't Stop Growing

As a child O'Neal was not a natural athlete. He was in reality an eternal mischief-maker, hot-tempered, and quick to create altercations. Around the time that he entered junior high school, he began to grow very rapidly, and his parents encouraged him to become involved in sports in order to channel his youthful energy and to keep him out of trouble. While attending a youth basketball clinic in Germany, O'Neal—because of his height—caught the eye of Louisiana State University (LSU) Coach Dale Brown. Brown was pleasantly surprised to learn that O'Neal, at more than 6-feet-6-inches tall, was not an adult member of the military (as appeared to be the case). The coach was even more pleased to discover that O'Neal was merely a freshman in high school—and still growing. Brown contacted O'Neal's father and urged him to keep in touch and to consider sending O'Neal to LSU.

As it happened, O'Neal was cut from his ninth grade basketball team because of his clumsiness. He was nonetheless already determined to become a professional basketball player. By the time the Harrison family returned to the United States, O'Neal was already 6-feet-10-inches tall and his size 17 shoes were too small. He was an imposing presence for a high school athlete.

Upon the family's return in 1987, Sgt. Harrison was assigned to Ft. Sam Houston, Texas, and the family moved to San Antonio where O'Neal enrolled as a sophomore at Robert G. Cole High School. There he nurtured his dreams of fame and even practiced signing his name, as if doling out autographs for imaginary fans.

At 250 pounds, O'Neal was a formidable center for his high school team. During his junior year the school recorded only one loss for the season as they went 32-1. The following year the team was undefeated, at 36-0. O'Neal averaged 32 points per game, 22 rebounds, and 8 blocked shots for his last two years of high school. By high school graduation in 1989 O'Neal was fully grown. He stood 7-feet-1-inch tall, wore a size 22 shoe, and was recruited intensively by coaches from major colleges. O'Neal opted to play with Coach Brown and the Tigers at LSU in Baton Rouge.

O'Neal, playing at center, was named to the All-American first team during his freshman year at LSU. He averaged more than 12 rebounds per game and set a conference record of 115 blocked shots. Although not the strongest among shooters, his game matured with practice, and he perfected his jump and hook shots. His feats were largely overshadowed that year by the talents of LSU power forward Stanley Roberts. Also a seven-footer, Roberts was faster, more experienced, and more confident.

During the summer of 1990 O'Neal went to the National Sports Festival where he represented the South. At the festival he averaged 24.5 points and 13.8 rebounds per game. Also during the summer break, through intensive conditioning he increased his vertical jump from 16 to 42 inches, which enabled him to reach more than two feet beyond the rim of the basket.

When O'Neal returned to LSU as a sophomore in the fall of 1990, the forward Roberts had left school to play professional ball. He spent the rest of the decade in the NBA playing for the Magic in 1991, and later for the Clippers, Timberwolves, Rockets, and Spurs. O'Neal easily inherited Roberts' reputation as the premiere varsity player at LSU, earning recognition as the biggest of the big men in the National College Athletic Association (NCAA) of that era.

O'Neal doubled his scoring average that season to 27 points per game, and in one contest against Arizona O'Neal scored 29 points—including 16 points in the final six minutes. Contemporary Black Biography cited Sports Illustrated in quoting Georgia coach Hugh Durham's remark at that time, that "'Shack' [ O'Neal] may be unguardable." O'Neal furthermore increased his rebound average to 14.6 per game. He led the NCAA and earned the College Player of the Year distinction from Sports Illustrated, the Associated Press, and United Press International respectively.

NBA Bound

College, for O'Neal, became confining. Always quick to unleash the uninhibited side of his nature, he was evicted from the dormitory at LSU for rowdy behavior shortly before the beginning of his junior year. He took a reprimand on another occasion for possessing an illegally funded cell phone, which (as it turned out) was a phony—a toy he carried to impress co-eds. In April, 1992, rather than re-enroll for his senior year, O'Neal announced his availability for the NBA draft.

On June 24, the day of the draft, he was picked first in the first round. Drafted by the Orlando Magic, he signed with that team for $41 million for seven years. His was the largest rookie contract in the history of professional basketball.

O'Neal was named player of the week after his first week as a rookie. It was a first-time occurrence in the NBA, and he was named as a starter in the All-Star game—another rare feat for a rookie. His rebounds, blocks, and starts ranked as team highs for the season, and averaged 23.4 points per game. That year the Magic more than doubled its win record from the previous year. The team went to a 41-41 record, which was 20 wins more than the previous season.

With 50 wins for the 1993-4 season, the Magic went to the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. O'Neal already had dunked 709 times in his first two years as a pro. As he made strides in his professional career, he continued taking college courses through an independent studies programs at LSU during the off-seasons. On December 15, 2000, he graduated with a general studies degree and a minor in political science. When O'Neal flew to Baton Rouge for the commencement he was honored by the school with a ceremony to retire his LSU jersey, Number 33.

L. A. Lakers

In 1996 O'Neal signed with the Los Angeles Lakers as a free agent. Again his contract made NBA history. At more than $120 million over seven years it was the largest free agent move in league history. O'Neal that summer won an Olympic gold medal with the U.S. basketball team.

In 2000 he led his new team to its first NBA championship since 1988. O'Neal earned the league MVP trophy and was named MVP of the All-Star game also that year. After leading the NBA in both scoring and field goal percentages for the season, he managed to score 41 points in the decisive championship game, a feat that earned him the MVP trophy for the 2000 NBA finals. With the finals MVP in his pocket, he had succeeded in sweeping all three of the 2000 MVP awards. It was only the third time in history that all three honors fell to the same player. He reaffirmed his contract option through the 2005-06 season that year.

The 2000-01 season brought a repeat of the previous year, with a championship title for the Lakers and the finals MVP trophy for O'Neal. After back-to-back championships, the Lakers in 2002 accomplished a so-called three-peat NBA championship win, with O'Neal three-peating his MVP honor.

Moonlighting Magic

O'Neal earned an estimated $30 million from endorsements alone in his first year as a professional athlete. As he peddled carbonated beverages, athletic shoes, sports equipment, and trading cards, his endorsement income swelled to an estimated $70 million by 2001.

After finalizing his first contract out of college, he relished in spending one million dollars for the first time. He managed easily to unburden himself of the money in the space of a few days. "My first check was for a million dollars, which came to about $600,000 [after taxes] … I spent it all in about 15 minutes," O'Neal bemoaned to S. L. Price in Sports Illustrated. O'Neal then explained

that in addition to his many purchases of expensive clothes and an ostentatious Mercedes Benz with custom wheel rims and speakers, he paid some debts for his parents and purchased a Mercedes apiece for each of them. "Then the bank called and said, 'You're $200,000 in the hole,'" O'Neal recalled.

O'Neal branched also into recording, entertainment, and other industries. His personal entrepreneurial ventures include a record label and a clothing line. TWisM, by which he identifies his business projects, is an acronym for O'Neal's personal motto, "The World Is Mine." Overall, he lives a high-stakes lifestyle, which he funds exclusively from his outside ventures—according to O'Neal, he never spends his NBA earnings.

Shaq-Fu Skillz

When O'Neal initiated his career as a rap musician in 1993, his debut single, "I Know I Got Skillz," was certified gold by December of the year. A debut album, Shaq Diesel, appeared also in 1993 and featured cameos by other popular artists and rap stars. It was certified platinum in 1994 (over 1,000,000 sold). His sophomore album, whimsically titled Shaq-Fu: Da Return, appeared in 1994 and was certified gold by January of 1995. A "best of" album appeared in 1996 and provided advance publicity for an all-new follow-up album, called You Can't Stop the Reign, which was released one week later. On this album O'Neal shared a track with a colleague, the late gangsta' rapper Christopher "Biggie Smalls" Wallace. In March 1997 the friendship came to a tragic end with the murder of Wallace not long after he and O'Neal shared a stage in West Hollywood.

O'Neal, having gained legitimacy for his recording career, returned in 1998 with another album, Respect. In 2001 he released an album for the new millennium, called Shaq O'Neal Presents His Super friends. Because O'Neal takes his identity in part from the ghetto life of his early years and in part from his life as an army brat, the rap albums brought validation to his image as a ghetto-child/rap icon and opened a new dimension to his persona.

"Ow!" a Toe

Excessively flippant and off-the-wall, O'Neal's outrageous personality and diverse interests keep his fans highly entertained. In his 2001 memoir, Shaq Talks Back from St. Martin's Press, he explains in his own words, "Where I Came from and How I Got So Damn Big." With a projected NBA salary of $21 million, O'Neal's player paycheck is the second highest in the league. With a net worth of $171 million in 2002 he was listed at number 22 among Fortune's "40 richest under 40."

Nicknamed Big Aristotle by some fans, O'Neal's teammates know him at times rather as Big Moody. When a toe injury to his size 22 foot kept him off the court after the 2002 NBA finals through November of the new season, he was unabashedly vocal about how he felt. He minced no words and chided to reporters that his pain was not to be taken lightly. Regardless, O'Neal's personal confidence may well be as large as his feet. Biographer Jack McCallum reported in Sports Illustrated that during the 2002 NBA Western Conference Playoffs, O'Neal sent the opposing coach Rick Adelman of the Sacramento Kings a piece of poetry that read, "Don't cry/Dry your eyes/Here comes Shaq/With those four little guys." O'Neal later bared the bottom of his backside to Kings fans after the Lakers won the conference title.

McCallum defended the impact of O'Neal as a player, although he seems at times to be larger than life. "[His] influence on his team is so profound, because he has worked so hard at becoming a complete player and because he has played through so much pain, he bristles whenever it is suggested that his oversized body is the primary reason for his success—a suggestion that is made every night of the season," said the writer.

O'Neal, who published his first autobiography, Shaq Attack, with Hyperion in 1993, and branched into children's literature in the late 1990s with Shaq and the Beanstalk and Other Very Tall Tales. Following his rookie year in Orlando, he earned __BODY__ million for his role as Nick Nolte's co-star in the feature film Blue Chip. O'Neal starred three more feature films—Kazaam in 1996, Steel in 1997, and The Wash in 2001. O'Neal, who directed the cable television series Cousin Skeeter, has expressed an interest in appearing in more action roles. He has appeared many times as himself on network television situation comedies and talk shows. A self-professed "Jersey guy," he anticipates a second career in law enforcement when his athletic prowess fades.

O'Neal is the father of two daughters and one son. He owns mansions Beverly Hills, California, and near Orlando, Florida. On December 26, 2002, he wed Shaunie Nelson, his friend of several years. Together the couple have four children, including one each from previous relationships and two together.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Address: Agent: c/o Leonard Armato, William Morris Agency, 151 South El Camino Dr., Beverly Hills, CA 90212-2775. Phone: (310) 859-4000. Address: c/o Staples Center, 1111 South Figueroa, St, Los Angeles, CA 90015. Phone: (213) 742-7333. Address: c/o Office, LA Lakers, 3900 W Manchester Blvd, Inglewood, CA, 90305-2200.

SELECTED WRITINGS BY O'NEAL:

(With Jack McCallum) Shaq Attack, New York: Hyperion Press, 1993.

Shaq and the Beanstalk and Other Very Tall Tales, New York: Scholastic, 1999.

Shaq Talks Back, New York: St. Martin's Press, 2001.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Books

Dougherty, Terri, Jam Session: Shaquille O'Neal, Edina (MN): ABDO Publishing Co., 2001.

Jackson, Kenneth T. and Arnold Markoe, The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives: Sports Figurers, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002.

O'Neal, Shaquille, Shaq Talks Back, New York: St. Martin's Press, 2001.

"Shaquille O'Neal," Contemporary Black Biography, Volume 30. Edited by Ashyia Henderson. Gale Group, 2001.

Periodicals

Sports Illustrated, May 24, 1999, p.97; June 17, 2002, p. 32; December 23, 2002, p. 64.

Sketch by G. Cooksey