Background

Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal was born on March 6, 1972 in Newark, New Jersey, United States. His biological father, Joseph Toney, left the family, and O'Neal and his mother, Lucille O'Neal, moved to San Antonio. His mother and his stepfather raised O'Neal, offering an abundance of food and discipline along the way.

Education

During O'Neal's childhood, Philip A. Harrison, his stepfather, was transferred to several different army bases, and the boy had difficulty making friends. He also was teased about his height; by age thirteen, O'Neal was six feet, five inches tall.

As an adolescent, O'Neal found he could get attention by pulling the school's fire alarms, and he was almost expelled for his displays of bad temper. Concerned about his poor behavior, his parents encouraged him to play basketball, baseball, and football, although O'Neal showed little natural athletic talent. When he was twelve the family was stationed in West Germany, where O'Neal attended a basketball clinic given by Dale Brown, the head coach at Louisiana State University (LSU). Brown could not believe that O'Neal was only thirteen years old and already wore a size seventeen shoe. Brown urged Harrison to eventually enroll his son at LSU in Baton Rouge. Ironically, O'Neal was cut from his ninth-grade basketball team; the coach told him that his feet were too big and his movements too clumsy.

In 1987 Harrison was stationed at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and moved the family to San Antonio, where O'Neal attended Robert G. Cole Senior High School and played center for the basketball team. At six feet, ten inches tall and 250 pounds, he was bigger and stronger than the other centers in the league and helped his team win the state championship. During his two years at Cole, he averaged 32 points, 22 rebounds, and 8 blocked shots per game and his team achieved a 68-1 record. O'Neal set numerous scoring and rebounding records. He also grew to his adult height of seven feet, one inch. Following his senior year, he was invited to play in the McDonald's High School All-America game, in which he scored eighteen points and grabbed sixteen rebounds. Upon graduation in 1989, O'Neal was one of the top college recruits, but he had already decided to attend LSU.

O'Neal enrolled at LSU in 1990 and truly began to blossom, even though he found it difficult being away from home for the first time. The big freshman had a solid season in the tough Southeastern Conference. In 1990 he averaged a respectable 13.9 points per game, but he received more attention for his ability to rebound and block shots. As a first-year player, O'Neal averaged more than twelve rebounds per game, an impressive total for one so young and so new to big-time college basketball. He also established a conference record of 115 blocked shots. During his first season, he found that opponents would double and triple team him. In response, O'Neal learned to shoot a jump shot and a hook shot, quickly gaining a reputation as one of the best centers in college basketball. He played with incredible strength and agility, achieving first-team All-America honors.

In his second varsity season at LSU, O'Neal made a great leap forward. He doubled his scoring average and increased his rebounding average to 14.6 per game, leading the nation in that category. Because of the beating O'Neal was taking each night in the pivot and concern over his family's modest means, he decided to turn professional. Although he left LSU in 1992 without earning a degree, he later received a Bachelor of Arts degree in general studies with a minor in political science in December 2000, through LSU's independent study program.

Later, in 2005, O'Neal earned an online Master of Business Administration degree through the University of Phoenix. Toward the end of his playing career, he began work on an educational doctorate at Barry University. O'Neal received his Doctor of Education degree in Human Resource Development in 2012.

Career

On June 24, 1992 O'Neal was selected in the first round by the Orlando (Florida) Magic, an expansion team. The Magic signed him to a seven-year, $40 million contract, making him professional basketball's highest-paid rookie. Even before O'Neal decided to leave LSU and become eligible for the NBA draft, he was deemed one of the most marketable young players ever. This was somewhat surprising, given that he had not led his college team to a National Collegiate Athletic Association championship, and it was uncertain that he would develop into a dominating player of the caliber of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Patrick Ewing, or Michael Jordan. However, in addition to his contract, O'Neal signed lucrative endorsements and became an instant multimillionaire.

O'Neal had a great first year in the NBA. He was voted the Rookie of the Year and was selected to start in the All-Star game, the first rookie to do so since Jordan in 1985. Basketball fans in NBA cities flocked to see the new young superstar and the rapidly improving Magic. O'Neal was perhaps the strongest player in the league, even as a rookie, and fans loved to watch his thunderous dunks, which occasionally pulled the basket down off its support stand.

In O'Neal's second season with the Magic (1993-1994), the team made it to the NBA finals for the first time, and O'Neal was named the Player of the Week. Off the court he endorsed Pepsi and Reebok, recorded a song with the Brooklyn rap trio Fu-Schnickens, and released his successful first album, Shaq Diesel (1993). He also appeared on Fu-Schnickens's 1994 top-forty single "What's Up Doc? (Can We Rock)." Thanks to a slew of guest stars, O'Neal's second album, Shaq-Fu Da Return (1994), established him as a gold-certified rap artist. His first single, "Biological Didn't Bother," quickly rose to the top twenty, and led to a collaboration with the singer Michael Jackson on the album MJ's HIStory (1995).

O'Neal realized after the 1995 season that he would need to mature both physically and mentally before he could win a championship ring. The Magic suffered from player injuries for the next two seasons, including O'Neal's; he had plantar fascitis (inflammation of a ligament) in his right foot that limited his movement and made pushoffs difficult. Some sportswriters noted his pathetic free-throw shooting (53.3 percent in 1994-1995) and said that, with his busy music career, he was spreading himself too thin to ever fulfill his enormous basketball potential. O'Neal also had started a movie career, playing his first leading role as a rapping genie in Disney's Kazaam (1996). He next starred in Steel (1997), as a larger-than-life DC Comics superhero.

Despite his off-court commitments, in 1995 O'Neal led Orlando to an Eastern Conference crown and the NBA finals, where they were swept by the Houston Rockets. In 1996, after being swept again in the play-offs (this time by the Chicago Bulls), O'Neal signed a seven-year, $120 million contract with the Los Angeles Lakers. His first year with the Lakers was a learning experience, and the team lost to the Utah Jazz in the conference semifinals. However, by the 2000 season O'Neal had developed in both strength and agility, and he helped lead the Lakers to their first NBA championship. This outstanding feat was repeated in 2001, 2002, and 2003.

In 2004 - after years of on-and-off feuding with Bryant, which had become a major distraction within the Lakers organization - O'Neal was traded to the Miami Heat. There he teamed with the talented young guard Dwyane Wade to lead Miami to an NBA championship in 2006. Injuries limited O'Neal's production over the following seasons, and he was traded to the Phoenix Suns in February 2008. O'Neal's playing style did not mix well with the Suns' up-tempo game, and - despite having had a very solid 2008-09 season - he was dealt to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2009 as Phoenix began a rebuilding process. He signed with the Boston Celtics in 2010, but an Achilles tendon injury limited his play. O'Neal retired after the 2010-11 season. His career totals include 28,596 points (the seventh highest total in NBA history at the time of his retirement) and 15 All-Star Game selections.

In 2014, he voiced himself in the computer-animated The LEGO Movie.

Achievements

• Shaquille O'Neal is considered to be one of the most dominant basketball players in NBA history. He won Rookie of the Year in 1992-93 and led his team to the 1995 NBA Finals. O'Neal's accolades also include the 1999-2000 MVP award, three All-Star Game MVP awards, three Finals MVP awards, two scoring titles, 14 All-NBA team selections, and three NBA All-Defensive Team selections.
  
  Shaquille is one of only three players to win NBA MVP, All-Star game MVP and Finals MVP awards in the same year (2000). He ranks 8th all-time in points scored, 6th in field goals, 15th in rebounds, and 8th in blocks. O'Neal also ranks third all-time in field goal percentage (58.2%).
  
  Shaquille was elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016 and to the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2017.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Little Shaq: Star of the Week

    (Created by Shaquille O'Neal and illustrated in full color...)

    2016
  • Shaq Talks Back

    (In Shaq Talks Back, Shaquille O'Neal for the first time t...)

    2001
  • Shaq and the Beanstalk and Other Very Tall Tales

    (Complete with colorful illustrations and photos of the NB...)

    1999
  • Shaq Attaq!: My Rookie Year

    (Professional basketball's amazing new superstar shares in...)

    1993
  • Shaq Uncut: My Story

    (In this rollicking new autobiography, Shaq discusses his ...)

    2011
  • Little Shaq

    (Showing kids that anything is possible with the support o...)

    2015
  • Little Shaq Takes a Chance 2016

• movie

  • Jack and Jill

    (Jack Sadelstein (Adam Sandler) has his normal tranquil li...)

    2011
  • Steel

    (Shaquille O'Neal sheds his hi-tops for a dazzling suit of...)

    1997
  • Blended

    (Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore star as single parents wh...)

    2014
  • Uncle Drew

    (A young man desperate to win a Harlem street basketball t...)

    2018
  • Blue Chips

    (Corrupt recruiting practices cast a cloud over a college ...)

    1994
  • Freddy Got Fingered

    (MTV icon Tom Green plays the 28-year-old Gord, returning ...)

    2001
  • The Wash

    (With the rent due and his car repossessed, Sean (Dr. Dre)...)

    2001
  • Kazaam 1996
  • Scary Movie 4 2006
  • Grown Ups 2 2013
  • Good Burger 1997

• music

  • Respect 1998
  • Shaq Diesel 1993
  • You Can't Stop the Reign 1996
  • Shaq Fu: Da Return 1994

Religion

O'Neal is a Muslim. His first and middle name - Shaquille and Rashaun - mean "little one" and "warrior" in Arabic, respectively. He is devout in his faith, saying: "Of course I believe in God. Only God could have given me what I have."

Furthermore, O'Neal has stated his intention to participate in the sacred Muslim rite of passage known as Hajj, where Muslims travel to the holy city of Mecca.

However, Shaq doesn't exclude or alienate others of different faiths.

Other sources describe O'Neal as a man of all religions. He once said: "I'm Muslim, I'm Jewish, I'm Buddhist, I'm everybody 'cause I'm a people person."

Politics

O'Neal is active in politics - both nationally and locally. In his adopted hometown of Los Angeles, O'Neal endorsed a District Attorney candidate named Carmen Trutanich - a non-partisan position.

Indicating his party affiliation, O'Neal endorsed Barack Obama in 2012, saying: "It's a hard job… You can't please everybody but I think he's doing a fabulous job. The world is in a little bit of turmoil right now - the economy's down - but… he's going to pick it back up and I think he's going to win this next election."

It's also worth noting, that O'Neal endorsed Chris Christie, a Republican, who served as the 55th Governor of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018, in his 2013 reelection bid, appearing in a television advertisement.

Views

Shaquille has raised millions of dollars for charity. He is a national spokesperson for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. In 2019, Shaquille established The Shaquille O'Neal Foundation.

Quotations: "For all my friends in the media who like quotes, mark this quote down. From this day on I'd like to be known as 'The Big Aristotle' because Aristotle once said, 'Excellence is not a singular act; it's a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.'"

"I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok."

"I had an awful first quarter but I picked it up. To all you single guys out there, it's not how you start the date, it's how you finish it sir. A lot of people can, you know, start the date with flowers and candy, but if you don't finish the date - you know what I mean?"

"When you're in championships, it's never about what you do. It's always about what other people do."

"I am the number one Ninja and I have killed all the Shoguns in front of me."

"I don't get nervous in any situation. There's no such thing as nerves when you're playing games."

"Me shooting 40% at the foul line is just God's way to say nobody's perfect."

"Everything happens for a reason. I'm used to it, I prepare for it. Like I say, at the end of the day, those in charge of their own destiny are going to do what's right for them and their family."

"My father made me who I am. He gave me a basketball and told me to play with the ball, sleep with the ball, dream with the ball. Just don't take it to school. I used it as a pillow, and it never gave me a stiff neck."

"Art is a process of delivering or arranging elements that appeal to the emotions of a person looking at it. It's what you feel."

"I never worry about the problem. I worry about the solution."

"If you got the game, you got the game. That's why Tiger Woods is out there playing golf with Greg Norman."

"Nobody's going to tell me how to be different, so stop asking me. Stop asking me what two-plus-two is. Everybody knows two-plus-two is five."

"And I want to do it the right way, like everybody else, not just a famous figurehead that gets a job because he is a famous basketball player. I want to really learn the business."

"Can I go one day without somebody saying something negative about me?"

"Every time I do something silly, it comes off really funny because it's natural."

"I'm like tax. You're going to pay one way or the other."

"Because I'm so big, you have to look at me. I think of myself as a monument. But sometimes I like to feel small."

"Generals don't panic; then the troops never panic."

"If I were a painter, you'd be calling me Shaqcasso."

"Someday I might have to put down a basketball and have a regular 9-to-5 like everybody else."

"When you're righteous, you don't have to tell people that you're righteous."

"I'm a weird big guy. Doing rapping, doing movies. Do a lot of stuff. But always do things the right way."

Membership

Shaq is a high-ranking member of an organization long shrouded in mystery and intrigue - the Freemasons. It is often speculated that at their secretive meetings, the Freemasons plan the fate of great men and the governance of the worlds of politics and finance.

Also, O'Neal is a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity and the National Board of Directors for Communities in Schools.

Personality

Shaq is famous for his playful, and at times, provocative personality. His gregarious and charm made him a popular pitchman throughout his career.

Physical Characteristics: Shaquille O'Neal is 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m) tall and weighs 330 lb (150 kg).

Interests

• Sport & Clubs

  wrestling, mixed martial arts, hockey, New Jersey Devils, Northampton Town

• Music & Bands

  rap

Connections

On December 26, 2002, O'Neal married Shaunie Nelson. Their marriage produced four children - Shareef, Amirah, Shaqir, and Me'arah. On November 10, 2009, they filed an intent to divorce, citing irreconcilable differences.

In summer 2010, O'Neal began dating Nicole "Hoopz" Alexander. They split in 2012. Since 2014, Shaquille has been dating Laticia Rolle.

O'Neal has a daughter from a previous relationship with his ex-girlfriend Arnetta Yardbourgh, Taahirah O'Neal. He also has a son Myles.

Father:

Joseph Toney

(born 1946)

Joe Toney is an American former basketball player for Seton Hall University, in South Orange, New Jersey. He currently works as a social worker.

Mother:

Lucille O'Neal

Lucille O'Neal is an American doctor, author, spokesperson, socialite and ex-president of the Mothers of Professional Basketball Players Association.

ex-spouse:

Shaunie O'Neal

(born November 27, 1974)

Shaunie O'Neal is an American television personality, entrepreneur, philanthropist and one of the executive producers of VH-1's reality TV series, Basketball Wives, Basketball Wives LA, and Baller Wives.

ex-partner:

Nicole Alexander

(born July 12, 1983)

Nicole Alexander is an American reality TV show contestant best known for winning the VH1 reality television shows Flavor of Love and I Love Money.

ex-partner:

Arnetta Yardbourgh

(born December 10, 1971)

Arnetta Yardbourgh is an American businesswoman and philanthropist.

Son:

Shareef O'Neal

(born January 11, 2000)

Shareef O'Neal is an American college basketball player for the LSU Tigers of the Southeastern Conference (SEC).

Daughter:

Amirah O'Neal

(born November 13, 2001)

Amirah O'Neal is an American basketball player who attended Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California, for three years before being homeschooled in 2019-20.

Son:

Shaqir O'Neal

(born April 19, 2003)

Shaqir O'Neal is an American basketball player who attends Union Grove High School.

Daughter:

Me'arah O'Neal

(born May 1, 2006)

Me'arah O'Neal is an American basketball player who attends Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California.

Daughter:

Taahirah O'Neal

(born July 18, 1996)

Taahirah O'Neal graduated from Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Son:

Myles O'Neal

(born May 8, 1997)

Myles O'Neal is an American television personality. He was one of the main cast members in the VH1 reality series Shaunie's Home Court.

stepfather:

Philip A. Harrison

Partner:

Laticia Rolle

(born February 11, 1988)

References

• O'Neal's Twitter
• O'Neal's Facebook
• O'Neal's Instagram
• Shaquille O'Neal: The Inspiring Story of One of Basketball's Greatest Centers In Shaquille O'Neal: The Inspiring Story of One of Basketball's Greatest Centers, you will learn the inspirational story of one of basketball's greatest centers, Shaquille O'Neal.
  2017
• Shaquille O'Neal: A Biography As one of the most recognizable and highest paid athletes in the world, Shaquille O'Neal, better known as Shaq, is undeniably one of the greatest players in basketball history. Murry Nelson presents a fascinating look at the career of a man who has dominated basketball for over 10 years and invites readers to take a close look at the person behind the phenomenon.
  2007