Shaquille O'Neal

Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal (born March 6, 1972), known commonly as Shaq, is an American former professional basketball player who is a sports analyst on the television program Inside the NBA.

He is a 7 ft and 325 lb center who played for six teams over his 19-year career in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and is a four-time NBA champion.

O'Neal is regarded as one of the greatest basketball players and centers of all time.

O'Neal was born on March 6, 1972, in Newark, New Jersey, to Lucille O'Neal and Joe Toney, who played high school basketball (he was an All-State guard) and was offered a basketball scholarship to play at Seton Hall.

Toney struggled with drug addiction and was imprisoned for drug possession when O'Neal was an infant.

Upon his release, he did not resume a place in O'Neal's life and instead agreed to relinquish his parental rights to O'Neal's Jamaican stepfather, Phillip Arthur Harrison, a career Army sergeant.

O'Neal remained estranged from his biological father for decades; O'Neal had not spoken with Toney or expressed an interest in establishing a relationship.

His 791 rebounds during the 1989 season remains a state record for a player in any classification.

O'Neal's tendency to make hook shots earned comparisons to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, inspiring him to wear the same jersey number as Abdul-Jabbar, No. 33.

After playing college basketball for the LSU Tigers, O'Neal was drafted by the Orlando Magic with the first overall pick in the 1992 NBA draft.

He quickly became one of the best centers in the league, winning Rookie of the Year in 1992–93 and leading his team to the 1995 NBA Finals.

After four years with the Magic, O'Neal signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Lakers.

On his 1994 rap album, Shaq Fu: The Return, O'Neal voiced his feelings of disdain for Toney in the song "Biological Didn't Bother", dismissing him with the line "Phil is my father."

O'Neal was honored as one of the league's greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA 50th Anniversary Team in 1996.

Due to his ability to dunk the basketball and score from close range, O'Neal also ranks third all-time in field goal percentage (58.2%) and led the league in field goal percentage ten times.

O'Neal's individual accolades include the 1999–2000 Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award; the 1992–93 NBA Rookie of the Year award; 15 All-Star Game selections, 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.

They won three consecutive championships in 2000, 2001, and 2002.

He is one of only three players to win NBA MVP, All-Star Game MVP and Finals MVP awards in the same year (2000); the other players are Willis Reed in 1970 and Michael Jordan in 1996 and 1998.

Amid a feud between O'Neal and his teammate Kobe Bryant, O'Neal was traded to the Miami Heat in 2004, and his fourth NBA championship followed in 2006.

Midway through the 2007–2008 season he was traded to the Phoenix Suns.

After a season-and-a-half with the Suns, O'Neal was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2009–10 season.

O'Neal played for the Boston Celtics in the 2010–11 season before retiring.

He was a minority owner of the Sacramento Kings from 2013 to 2022 and is the general manager of Kings Guard Gaming of the NBA 2K League.

However, O'Neal's feelings toward Toney mellowed in the years following Harrison's death in 2013, and the two met for the first time in March 2016, with O'Neal telling him, "I don't hate you. I had a good life. I had Phil."

O'Neal came from a tall family.

His father and mother were 6ft 1in and 6ft 2in tall, respectively, and by age 13, O'Neal was already 6ft 6in tall.

He credited the Boys & Girls Clubs of America in Newark with giving him a safe place to play and keeping him off the streets.

"It gave me something to do," he said.

"I'd just go there to shoot. I didn't even play on a team."

Because of his stepfather's career in the military, the family left Newark, moving to military bases in Germany and Texas.

After returning from Germany, O'Neal's family settled in San Antonio, Texas.

By age 16, O'Neal had grown to 6ft 10in, and he began playing basketball at Robert G. Cole High School.

He led his team to a 68–1 record over two years and helped the team win the state championship during his senior year.

He ranks 8th all-time in points scored, 6th in field goals, 15th in rebounds, and 8th in blocks.

O'Neal was elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016.

He was elected to the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2017.

In October 2021, O'Neal was again honored as one of the league's greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team.

In addition to his basketball career, O'Neal has released four rap albums, with his first, Shaq Diesel, going platinum.

O'Neal is also an electronic music producer, and touring DJ, known as DIESEL.

He has appeared in numerous films and has starred in his own reality shows, Shaq's Big Challenge and Shaq Vs. He hosts The Big Podcast with Shaq.