[TV static drones]
[bright tone]
[alert drones]
- The world knows I'm a bullshitter.
Like, sometimes when you're telling a story,
you want to add a little barbecue sauce.
I don't want to go,
"I walked to the store and bought a loaf of bread."
Like, right, that's the gist of the story,
but as I was walking to a store,
a dog started chasing me and I ran up the tree.
The branch broke. I landed on my back.
And then when I land,
I thought the dog was gonna bite me,
but he licked me in the face.
And then the lady came out,
and, oh, my God, she was beautiful.
And she was single. And now we're married.
Like, you just have to-- [alert beeps]
I'm not lyin'; I just like to add a little, you know.
[Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" playing]
DJ Diesel, white guy classics.
White guy classics. White guy classics.
♪ ♪
[a-ha's "Take On Me" playing]
♪ ♪
[laughter]
That's how we did it in high school.
♪ ♪
Yeah. [chuckles]
Yeah, that's how we did it. [laughs]
- Meet Shaquille O'Neal.
Averaging 47 points a game,
Shaquille's a man among boys on the court.
- That's a seven-footer! Are you serious?
- LSU's Shaquille O'Neal is already being heralded
as one of the top centers in the universe.
- Square off, and they're brawling.
- The Orlando Magic selects Shaquille O'Neal
from Louisiana State University.
- He brought the whole thing down.
- I would like to present to Shaquille O'Neal
the Most Valuable Rookie of the Year award.
- And the young Orlando Magic have come here to win
in Chicago.
- They have swept the Orlando Magic!
- Shaq signed the largest deal in sports history
with the Los Angeles Lakers.
- NBA MVP Shaquille O'Neal.
- ♪ Take me on ♪
♪ Take on me ♪
- I'ma bring the championship to Miami, I promise.
- Congratulations, Miami.
- ♪ In a day or two ♪
- Give it up to the greatest big man
to ever play the game.
- Can you dig it?
- My mother comes from a very religious family.
So after I was born, we were outcasted.
- Well, it was 1970s.
And a lot of the young women were looking
for unique names for their children.
And I wanted him to have a name
that really spoke to who he was.
So we looked into a book of Islamic names.
Shaquille, meaning "little one,"
Rashaun, meaning "warrior,"
and you know our last name, O'Neal.
Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal.
- She brought me home to my grandmother's house.
And it was like she saw a ray of light.
'Cause I'ma tell you about the elderly women
in my family.
All the stuff that's happened to me now?
They knew.
They would always say...
- "Something special about that one."
It was something, something special.
We lived in a time where we had civil unrest.
A lot of things were a Black and white issue.
And there was just stress outside of the home.
So laughter was one of the ways that we came together
and just really enjoyed being together.
And it made for a big, happy family.
We call him Daddy Shaq sometimes
'cause he was the oldest, and so he was the bossy one.
And then we had Lateefah. She's the sensitive one.
And then we had Ayesha.
She was the one that was full of joy
and full of laughter.
And we got Jamal.
He took on a piece of everybody else's personality.
And then Phil being that strong disciplinarian.
And then here I am, I'm the peacemaker.
So we had a good time with our family.
- Tell me about your service in the military.
- Well, I'm stationed at Fort Sam Houston, Texas,
in San Antonio.
I'm a supply sergeant there. - Mm-hmm.
- I'm assigned to the Academy of Health Science.
- Mm-hmm. Looks like you've seen
quite a bit of service too.
- Oh, I've been there for 18 1/2 years.
- I remember playing ball with his dad.
We used to play every Sunday.
Phil was just a absolute beast.
He grew up inner city, where he played sports.
And then he was a military man.
- We got married when Shaquille
was close to two years old.
So Phil was his father.
And he's the only man and father
that Shaquille has ever known.
- We were all product of inner-city strength.
Phil made sure that his kids
wouldn't follow that same pattern.
- Oh, it was a lot of love,
a lot of discipline.
Like, my dad didn't--
he did some talking,
but if you didn't listen, if you disobeyed,
he'd put the crackdown on us.
- He always told me,
"I'ma make you better than I was."
- And my dad would always tell us,
"Y'all might hate my ways..."
- "But you love my results."
You ever heard that one?
- The way I got a spankin',
if you're looking on the outside,
you would bring up the A word.
But he would never come in
and just knock me out for no reason.
I used to do a lot of kid stuff.
Then a strange thing happens.
As I'm starting to figure things out
and be more responsible around the house,
I realized that my last name is different
from my brother's and sisters'.
So I said, "Mommy, why is my name Shaquille O'Neal
and Jamal, Lateefah,
and Ayesha's last name is Harrison?
- We were just told that Shaquille was born
before my mom and dad got married.
He kept the name O'Neal because it just sounded good.
- And she said, "Baby, I always wanted
"to tell you this.
Sarge is not your real father."
What?
- I wanted to ensure that he knew the truth.
And I introduced him when he got to an age
where he would understand,
because I didn't want him to hear that from anybody else.
- She said, "Would you like to meet your real father?"
- "Yeah, I can get away from this motherfucker now
and go live with my other dad."
And we get in the car, and guess where we end up at.
The same projects I was born and raised in.
So we go in this guy's house, Joe Toney,
and we're sittin' talkin'.
But I'm lookin' around like...
"I'm not comin' back to this shit."
- He didn't care.
[chuckles]
He's like, "Okay."
- This guy--
at two years old when you married him,
and I look at him and all the spankings I took,
that this is my daddy.
[dramatic music]
The power of love is great.
We had so much love growing up.
I thought I was rich.
- Money was tight,
but the love was overpowering the money,
so we just all had this bond.
- Our father had this motto,
"If one jump in,
we all jump in."
One time, this girl, she hit me in the mouth.
And I ran and told my sister.
- So I just immediately went and hit her.
Her sister came from the side and blindsided me,
so I fell on my back.
So Shaquille grabbed the sister by the collar,
and he took Ayesha, our younger sister's hand
and started hitting her upside the face.
And then the brother came down there--
And this is when Shaquille-- he was, like,
all into wrestling, so he picked the brother up
and he did, like, a backbreaker on him,
and the guy's all on the floor.
And then the mom came, and she's yelling.
She's like, "Hey!"
And then Shaquille's like, "Oh, my God, we gotta go.
Let's run."
So he grabbed us all up, and we took off running.
And we get home, then...
[knocking]
Knock on the door, and she was like,
"Yeah, your kids beat up my kids.
"Your son did some kind of move on my son,
and now his back is all hurting."
And my dad was like, "Ooh, ooh, I'ma get y'all.
Wait when they leave."
My dad closed the door, and he was like,
"That's right. That's what I'm talking about."
[laughs] "One of y'all get in a fight,
y'all all get in a fight."
- We all looked out for each other.
That's just the way it was.
- Shaquille felt like he had to take care of us.
"Listen, y'all are number one."
Never, "Okay, you do you."
No, it's not like that.
- Around Christmastime, my dad sits me down.
Said, "Look, dog, you know,
"when you get married you'll understand this.
"You gotta take care of the ladies.
"You always have to protect,
"provide, and love for the ladies.
"You know, I know you want the big boom box and all that,
"but I can't get that right now.
Next payday, I'll get it for you."
"No, that's cool."
'Cause I'm all about family.
And if I come in the house
and see everybody smiling, I don't need nothing.
I'm asleep in the room-- not asleep, just fake sleep.
So I hear everybody opening up their stuff,
and I'm just laying there.
And something hit me in the stomach.
"Oh!"
And I look, and it was an autographed--
fake autograph--but it was an autographed Dr. J ball.
And then I look on the ground,
and there was a little boom box.
It wasn't no big one.
And he's like, "I appreciate you, big man."
"No, I appreciate you, sir."
That was the best Christmas ever.
- I think what carries him is the love and the support
that he always got from Phil.
He didn't understand it at first.
He said, "Well, why did I get so many whuppings?"
[laughs]
I said, "Because you needed to be disciplined.
"You needed to be taught, and sometimes that was
the only way to get your attention."
But he had to realize that it was for his good.
You don't always understand why.
But you appreciate it when you get older,
because had it gone a different way,
he may not be the man that he is today.
- I had three escapes.
After I'd get whupped and get done cryin',
it was like God gave me a certain remote.
- You know those old TVs where you had to turn?
- [mimics TV dial clicking] [TV dial clicks]
- When it would go out,
you'd have to hit it on the side?
- [vocalizes]
'Cause "Good Times" is coming on.
- Hello.
- After "Good Times," here comes "Sanford and Son."
- Son, you worthless.
- After "Sanford and Son," here comes "The Jeffersons."
[laughter]
Every night.
But then the movie that changed my life,
called "Fish That Saved Pittsburgh."
And the movie's about a young guy.
He had to find Dr. J to get him to play in this game.
And then my father knew the love I had for the movie.
He said, "Son, if you pass the next grade,
I'll take you to see Dr. J."
"Him? He's real?"
So I'm busting my ass in school, boom, boom, boom.
Not an A, B guy. Cs.
And then one day, I'm sittin' in the room,
and it was just me and him.
He said, "Let's take a ride." [engine turning over]
We get in our little Toyota Corolla.
- ♪ Toyota ♪
- We pull up to Madison Square Garden,
and we go way to the top.
And then finally when I look down,
Dr. J goes baseline.
Dunks. Crowd go cra-- [mimics crowd cheering]
It was like some spirits just entered my body.
[vocalizes]
And I just immediately turned to my father.
I said, "Sir, I know what I want to be when I grow up."
In his words, "If you listen to me,
I'll make you one of the best basketball players ever."
[light music]
- The pituitary gland begins to secrete
the growth hormone.
The boy grows rapidly in height, weight,
and strength.
But the rapid growth of his muscles
gives him a great need for activity.
And this may express itself in many ways.
- My grandfather was 7 foot before we even realized
that that was something kind of special.
And I didn't realize that I would ever have children
that would grow up to be tall and handsome like that.
Shaquille always grew a height above
or maybe a few pounds above his peers.
- I seen my mother knock a bus driver out one time.
Five and under can ride free.
And I'm three, four, but I'm a big kid.
And the guy's tellin' my mama,
"If he's five, he must be retarded or something."
And my mom hit him with that bing, bing.
- Well, I--[chuckles]
I had to, because they'd make it seem
like it was something really wrong with that.
But we learned so much.
And we let him know that it's okay.
He didn't want to be different.
He wanted to be the same height,
the same size as all of his peers.
But he wasn't, to he had to accept that fact, the reality.
That was his life.
- You either was gonna get the clown Shaquille,
or you was gonna get the bully Shaquille.
There wasn't no middle.
See, being big,
a lot of people thought I was a holdback.
But actually, I skipped first grade,
so--which means I was ahead.
"You know, you're 11?
"How are you 11 and you're 6'4"?
You must be stupid or something."
So now I'm like, "What'd you just say?
3:00. Outside in the back."
But because of "Good Times," "Sanford and Son,"
"Jeffersons," I love to laugh.
I didn't want to fight every day.
Let's laugh.
Let's joke around.
Let's make spit wads and throw them at the teacher,
and let's have fun.
It was a way of being accepted.
Didn't want to be looked at as the tall kid
who, by the way, was terrible at sports.
- Who taught him how to play basketball?
You know, it's hard to say.
Phil taught him a lot about basketball,
'cause he began coaching him when he was six years old.
Now, I played basketball too,
so I taught him a trick or two.
[eerie music]
- So when I first started to play,
my father was like, "Aah."
He's not like, "Here you go."
Like, he--and I'd go like this.
So I can remember one day, he said,
"Put your hands on your side and don't move."
And he threw it. I moved. "What the f--
didn't I say don't move?"
So now I've gotta put my hands on my side,
and chest pass right to the face.
Boom.
"Look, see? How was that?"
The point he was trying to make:
stop being scared of the ball.
'Cause even if you get hit,
this is how it's gonna feel.
I ain't gonna kill you.
So after that, my hands became impeccable.
Now it's time to put me on the team and coach me.
I had two moves.
Catch it, look left, look right,
and dribble, off the glass.
And I can remember a story, we were in Bayonne, New Jersey.
I'm not really that good.
I'm just bigger than everybody.
And I can remember this guy storm on the basketball court,
grab his son.
This is what he says:
"No way that motherfucker's ten years old.
"If that motherfucker is ten years old,
"he's gonna be one of the best NBA players
to ever fuckin' play the game."
And he walks off. He takes his kid.
They forfeit the game.
And my dad's like, "See? See?
If you listen to me, I'ma make you the best player ever."
I went from the projects of Newark, New Jersey,
to down South, Hinesville, Georgia.
First time I seen a whole bunch of white people
at the same time.
First day of school, "What's up, my nigga?"
"Is that white boy supposed to call me that?
3:00. I'm fucking you up at 3:00."
I gave him the beatdown of his life.
He starts having a seizure.
There was a guy who saw that,
came, put the pen in his mouth,
and saved this kid's life.
Now, if he wasn't there,
none of this would be.
[sirens wailing] The cops come,
talk to my dad,
and he spanks me again.
He gives me the, "You know what could have happened
if you would have killed this kid?"
So now the bully side is dead.
Dead.
No way.
'Cause it only takes one mistake.
You can have a million dreams.
Only takes one mistake.
[cell doors clang] At that point in my life,
I was dreamin' about being a rapper.
I was dreamin' about being an actor.
I was dreamin' about being rich.
I was dreamin' about being a basketball player.
I was just dreamin'.
And then if all that didn't work, guess what.
I'm joining the army.
'Cause you know why? This is a pretty good life.
Always had plans.
I'm never going to the bottom, ever.
'Cause I've seen the bottom.
We just came from the bottom.
This guy Philip Harrison brought us somewhere.
It ain't at the top.
I ain't going back to the bottom.
Now when I leave Georgia,
we going to a place called Germany.
[projector clicking]
I'm like, "What's that?"
"Get your ass on the plane!"
Cargo plane.
[plane engine humming]
- There were rows and rows of military families
going to these different stations in Germany,
so we didn't feel so alone.
And I can't say that we weren't ready,
but we were a little bit fearful
because we had never been on an airplane before.
And that is a long, long ride.
- I'm like, "What the fuck is this?"
Woods.
Wildflecken is on a mountain.
And the base is even smaller.
And now I'm like, "Oh, my God."
And I hate using this word "depression."
It was bad.
But it was a blessing for me,
'cause now there's only one thing to do:
play sports.
I go to the base every day.
And there's no kids up there.
I'm only there because my father runs the gym
and I'm not sitting at the house all day.
"Get your ass out there and play."
So I play. I'm terrible.
People criticizin' me. I know it.
My father comes in the house one day.
He hits me in the back of the head
with a paper. [mimics whip cracking]
Says, "College coach comes to Wildflecken
to speak to the troops."
"Get your ass up.
See if you can get a scholarship."
But before I left, I say,
"I'm talkin' to a college coach.
Let me sound smart."
So I... [pages fluttering]
Extremities.
Extrem--extrem--extremities.
- All right, now, no punches were thrown there.
- Lookit, you see Dale Brown push Groves?
And then Gro--
- It was really by accident
when I first met him
in a place called Wildflecken
up in the mountains.
I was at the gym where I was putting on the clinic.
And I'm packing my bag, and I get a tap on the shoulder.
And I turn around, and...
here's this giant of a guy, kind of shy.
"Coach Brown," he said,
I'll be trying out for the team."
And he said, "I can't dunk a ball.
"And I run up and down the court
about three, four times..."
both: "And my lower extremities..."
- "Tire."
I say, "Lower extremities?"
I didn't say that to him, but I'm thinking,
"He's a pretty smart guy."
He said, "Can you show me some exercises to improve it?"
"What I'll do, Soldier, when I get back to Baton Rouge
is, I'll send you the weight training program."
I said, "How long you been in service?"
And he goes like this, and he goes, "Coach Brown,
I'm only 13 years old."
I said, "What?"
Being the Rhodes Scholar I am,
my next question was, "Where's your dad?"
He said, "He's in the sauna."
I said, "I'd like to meet him."
So we're heading to the sauna.
I was just putting my hand on the door
and the door burst open.
And out, coming, sweating profusely,
military-green towel around him--
"That's my dad. That's my dad."
This is important.
I handed him my business card, and I said,
"Sergeant Harrison," I said, "my name's Dale Brown.
I'm the head basketball coach at LSU."
And almost with disdain, "Excuse me, Coach Brown."
He says, "This is all fine and good, basketball."
But he said, "I think it's time,"
he said, "our children get degrees
"so they can be generals in the army
"instead of a sergeant.
"They can be presidents of corporations
"instead of janitors.
"They can be head coaches instead of assistant coaches
"running all over the country looking for players.
"If you're interested in my son's intellect,
we might talk someday."
- Sends me the program.
So I try everything.
And I try out for the team again,
but I don't make it.
So I write him a tearful letter.
"Coach, I'm sorry. It didn't work."
- "I did everything..."
- "Thank you for the help." - "You told me to do..."
- "I appreciate it." - "And my high school coach
"cut me off the team.
"He told me I'm too slow, I'm too clumsy,
"I have too big of feet.
"I will never be a basketball player.
Why don't I be a goalie in soccer?"
So I sat behind my desk and I thought,
"Now, what kind of a profound statement
am I gonna make to a 13-year-old child?"
"Dear Shaquille,
"I'm so sorry what happened to you.
"But I found out in my life when I heard people whispering,
"'He has no father. His mother's on welfare.
"'He lives in a one-room apartment.
He won't be successful,'
"if you always sincerely try to do your very best--
"and only you will know that-- and you never give up
"under any conditions,
sooner or later, God'll take care of everything else."
- That's why I wanted to go to LSU.
Because before I became this character known as "Shaq,"
nobody wanted me.
But Dale Brown looked at me. He chose me.
He put his hand around my shoulders
and saw something in me that I didn't see.
♪ ♪
- So I was in my office one afternoon,
and a tall, skinny kid walked in.
And I knew who it was,
but I had never really introduced myself to him.
And he said, "Coach, I want to try out
for the basketball team."
He said, "If you promise not to cut me,
I promise you won't regret it."
And I said, "Okay, we'll see how things go."
Shaquille kind of cut his teeth
playing down on the base gym
against 19-, 20-, 21-year-old soldiers.
His dad, Sergeant Harrison, would take him down,
drop him off.
Man, I tell you what, I know at that time
I didn't understand that guy.
He was so hard on Shaquille. He was so--
I think there were times Shaquille was afraid of him
and rightfully so.
I'm not a parent. I don't have kids.
It's not my place to say
whether it was too hard or too soft or--
I think the results speak for themselves.
Let's just say this,
Sarge had one speed: 11.
When I first started with him,
Shaquille's brain and his body
is still catching up with his size.
And there were times when he would run
and his bones were going faster than his muscles.
And he--it was very painful for him to run.
And sometimes we'd run conditioning drills.
He would cry. [indistinct yelling]
- I had something called Osgood-Schlatter's.
I was growing too fast,
and my body and my knees didn't keep up.
- And I'd pull him aside and say,
"Hey, why don't you sit this one out?"
He said, "No, Coach.
I'll do what everybody else does."
As a sophomore playing on a team
laden with seniors and a couple of juniors,
he kind of got picked on a little bit.
We were in a game up in Osterholz,
which is way up in northern Germany.
He was open inside,
and they were taking shots
rather than kicking it down inside to him.
So I told them at halftime,
"If you guys don't start getting the ball inside to him,
I'ma pull both you guys out and you're gonna sit."
I think that one of the things that he appreciates
is that I stood up for him.
Playing high school ball in Europe,
our average road trip was between four and five hours.
When I think about the relationship
that I've had with Shaquille,
it was all forged on a bus to nowhere
and talking about what young kids
hoped for and dreamed for,
and, "How come our moms and dads are so strict on us?"
I was fortunate to be able, maybe, to give him
some perspective, you know, during that time in his life
when he was kind of forming his own opinion
about what he thought about the world.
So at the end of the year,
we made it to the small schools tournament.
Unfortunately, Shaquille's father,
he was destined to be transferred back to the States.
So we got a call that he was gonna be leaving.
We looked at the calendar.
We're not gonna have him for the Elite Eight.
He played in those last two games.
He played lights out.
We're done, we're in the locker room,
I'm talking to the team,
and Shaquille was leaning over the counter to the sinks.
And I noticed the sinks were wet, and I thought,
"Why is he washing his hands?
"We--I mean, I guess we just played a game.
I don't know."
And I quickly realized that it wasn't water.
He was crying.
And I knew in that moment
how difficult it was gonna be--
[clears throat]
I knew how difficult it was gonna be
for him to leave us.
And he turned to me, and he hugged me.
And he said, "Coach, I love you."
And I said, "I love you too, big guy."
That's the last time I saw him
until he was playing for Coach Brown.
- After my sophomore year, we leave.
Back in Jersey and seeing family--
"What's happening?" Boom, boom. Lovin' and huggin'.
We got the moving thing on top of the car.
I'm like, "Yo, man, where we going?"
"Shut your ass up and get in the car."
And we get in the car.
And we drivin' and we drivin'.
Now I'm starting to see stuff I ain't seen in a while--cows.
I'm like...
And then I see, "Welcome to Texas."
I'm like, "Texas?"
Cowboys?
We moved to San Antonio, Texas.
We arrive at the school.
And I'm talking to the principal,
and I see this little kid walking down the hall,
and he comes in, and, "This is Joe Cavallaro.
He's gonna show you around."
- I see Sergeant Harrison and Shaquille standing there.
Obviously a basketball player,
so about time we get some good talent
for the basketball team.
- He showed me around.
And, "What about the basketball team?"
"We ain't really that good."
"But I want to meet some of the players."
- Our graduating class in 1989 was 79 people.
You couldn't go to the school unless your parents
were in the military
or if you parents worked at that school.
- So because there's not a lot of kids,
I make the team.
I'm a starter.
- The high school years was something very special
because we were just coming from Germany.
And I remember the coach said that,
"I don't know if he can walk and chew gum at the same time."
We told him, "You may have to just show them.
Don't even tell them how good you know you are."
- Our team became immediately dominant
his junior year.
- He began to get exposure
all around the state of Texas.
- My first article was
"Cole's O'Neal 'best in the U.S.'"
So 35-1, having a good year.
Semifinals going into the finals.
Down by one.
Shaquille O'Neal gets fouled,
goes to the line, misses.
[indistinct chatter]
- We got beat in the playoffs
because he missed free throws.
That stuck with him and gave him the motivation
to do what he did his senior year,
which was absolutely amazing.
[indistinct chatter] [laughs]
[rhythmic clapping]
cheerleaders: All right, Shaquille!
- Senior in high school.
Magic Johnson was my guy.
So I'm smooth with the ball.
Look-away pass.
I cross this dude up at half-court, ooh, ooh.
I go to give a nasty finger roll, and I miss.
All of a sudden, I see this big Black dude
walking on the court in his military fatigues.
It's my father, the Sarge.
He said, "Call a time-out."
"Yes, sir."
He said, "What you doing?"
"Man, I'm just workin' on my Magic"--
[mimics whip cracking] [TV dial clicks]
"Fuck that."
[gears rumbling]
"Be Shaquille O'Neal."
"Dunk it every fucking time."
[thunder booming]
And the boys knew what happened.
They knew the Sarge done touched me up.
- And I looked at him,
and he was like,
"Give me the goddamn ball."
That's all you had to say, bro.
- When I dunked, I was so fuckin' mad,
I wanted to break the rim off for him.
[thud]
"Oh, this is what you want me to do?"
[grunting]
"This good enough for you, Sarge?"
[grunting]
Everybody's scared. Terrified.
[people screaming] I'ma kill your ass out here.
- Monster. - [growls]
- That's the monster shit, bro.
- He's 7 feet tall,
one of the top five high school players
in the country, and he just turned 17.
Shaquille O'Neal, averaging 47 points a game
in the playoffs.
- He started going up against these kids
and just doing what he wanted to.
We beat a team 121-35.
By the end of the game, the rims were like this...
[crowd cheering, ball thudding]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[crowd yelling]
Sergeant Harrison saw it before anybody.
- [mimics whip cracking]
So I'm in the house one day,
and my father comes in and hits me with a paper again.
"Look at this motherfucker."
- The contact with the left hand.
- There was a guy named Jon Koncak.
- Takes it to the basket and rattles it home.
- He signed $15 million for three.
"Get your shit. We gonna watch him play."
- ♪ Toyota ♪
- And I'm watching this guy play, and I'm like,
"Yo, if he gettin' $15 million I can get $8 million."
So now I got to stay focused. Now I'm close.
This article right here that says
"Cole's O'Neal 'best in the U.S.'"
says that I'm close.
[upbeat music]
- In today's classic, Shaquille O'Neal,
a 6'11" giant from San Antonio,
will lead the West against the East.
It's the 12th annual McDonald's All-American Game.
♪ ♪
- So growing up in my high school,
I loved Dick Vitale.
- This is excitement. This is absolutely bedlam.
- Loved him.
And I get to the McDonald's game,
and I was like, "Hello, Mr. Vitale."
And Mr. Vitale says, "And you are?"
I said, "My name's Shaquille O'Neal."
"Oh, you the big guy from Texas
that played against those small kids."
Oh, my God.
Now I'm fuckin' pissed.
My mom always used to say,
and it didn't make sense till that day,
"Baby, make 'em remember your name."
I already know what I'ma do.
First time I touch the ball, I'm taking it coast-to-coast.
So I blocked Conrad McRae's shot.
- There's Shaquille with another rejection.
- Dribble.
Take off on the free throw line.
Dunk it. Boom.
And then Dick Vitale screamed, "Oh, my God."
And I'm looking like, "Oh." - I can't believe it!
I can't believe it! That's a seven-footer!
Are you serious?
- I'll tell you one thing, this guy can play.
Shaquille O'Neal will be a star at LSU.
[percussive music]
♪ ♪
- Now when I go to Baton Rouge,
it's back to the bottom, brother.
They got Chris Jackson
and Stanley Roberts.
We don't know who you are.
- I remember him asking
who would start and all that business.
And I told him right up front, but I said,
"Shaquille, I have never told a player he would start.
That has to occur on the court.
- You know, I go from averaging
37 points to 6 points.
So my whole freshman year, I'm playing the game
and I'm turning it over; I'm fumbling.
It's back to, "You can't play."
But, you know, my father always told me,
"If you stay consistent at something,
whatever you're looking to accomplish, it will happen."
- I don't think I've ever seen a player consistently
get better and better and better and better.
There was no question,
not one doubt in my mind, he was gonna be a superstar.
- Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, aka Chris Jackson,
doesn't know this, but I used to follow him.
I knew he used to work out at night,
but nobody was allowed to go in there.
So I broke in there.
And he was talking to himself. "Shoot."
And it seemed like he wasn't missing.
So I'm like, "Okay, if this what he's doing
to be great, I'ma do it."
"Oh, Patrick, you want to try to guard Shaquille?"
"Oh, Shaquille"-- like, and I would--
I was trying to imagine that.
So guess what happened my sophomore year.
Mr. Stanley Roberts flunks out.
Here's my shot.
And I come in first time I got the ball
and dunked it.
[crowd cheering]
[whistle blows] I'm like...
- Flips it to O'Neal and slams it in.
- Shaquille, and then I'm like...
- I'd say Shaq took it to the rack.
- Like, man, this is what I've been dreaming about
all my life.
- 7'1", nearly 300 pounds,
yet only weeks beyond his 19th birthday,
LSU sophomore Shaquille O'Neal is already being heralded
as one of the top centers in the universe.
- My sophomore year, I led the conference in everything.
And I always knew from a youngster,
take advantage of opportunities.
- Great steal. O'Neal, slam dunk!
Oh, my goodness.
- Sophomore year, I wanted to go pro.
My father said, "We've been broke
"17 years of your life.
We can be broke for 18."
- When he first went to school, everything was
go to school, get education.
Now that Shaquille's
a fairly good basketball player,
everybody's now saying,
"Dump school and go to the NBA."
- He probably knew, too, that he was that good.
And I remember sitting him down
and said, "It's gonna be different from now on."
- Why? I don't understand that.
'Cause of the money? Money isn't everything.
'Cause of the publicity? That's not everything.
- I know it's gonna be an argument,
'cause he's like, "Nope.
"You ain't doing shit until you get a degree.
"I don't give a shit what you say.
"I don't care how much money they're offering you.
You ain't doing nothing."
- If he goes the NBA and can't do what they expect him to do,
where's he gonna be at?
- I go--I said, "I want to go pro."
He's going, "Motherfucker,
"da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.
Get out of my face!"
So my mom said, "Come with me, baby."
And my mom said, "Balance this checkbook."
I didn't know what the fuck I was doing.
Mom said, "You not ready, baby."
- He decided that he wanted to go back to school
for at least another year or so.
- "This conversation over." "Yes, ma'am."
- At that time, I made it my point
just to help him.
If he needed me, I was there.
He had that dream, "I'm gonna be professional one day."
We would not pay bills and get in the car on a Friday
and drive to Louisiana
just to spend the weekend with him
so that we could be with him and keep him encouraged.
"You a big man. You stand tall.
You don't let anybody move you."
- And it's a 10-point lead.
[indistinct chatter]
One-handed catch by Shaquille.
Got his own rebound. [whistle blows]
And that'll count.
And a foul as O'Neal will step to the free throw line.
- People had to compete against me
because of my size.
They felt they had to get super physical.
Well, guess what. I got ass-whuppings every day.
You're not hurting me.
It's just making me more angry.
[whistle blows] - And a foul.
- Oh! How good is that?
- Also showed me a sign of respect.
"I can't stop you, man. I'm sorry. I fouled him."
- You think this big guy is good?
Watch this. He's gonna get hammered right here,
get fouled, still get it up with his strength, get it in,
and count it.
- I had called the SCC numerous times and told them
that the referees have to stop these flagrant fouls.
- Tapped in... - "They can't stop him,
"so they foul him,
"knowing he's a poor free throw shooter.
"Shaquille's gonna be seriously hurt.
It could cost him his career."
- They're gonna get shots. [whistle blows]
O'Neal is fouled by Groves as he made
a strong move to the basket.
Strong being a bit of an understatement
in that case.
- When we go to the SCC tournament,
third time this happened
by this player from Tennessee.
- Won four in a row, lost a heartbreaking...
[whistle blows]
Uh-oh, look out.
Groves and O'Neal square off.
And Dale Brown is pushing Groves.
- And I see Shaquille's knee going out
and a fight breaking out,
so I go out on the court
and get in a confrontation with the guy doing it.
- That's why I love that man.
He was right there next to me.
The reason why I swung on Carlus Groves,
because in my mind,
this dude's trying to mess my money up.
And I wanted to send a message to anybody
that try to mess my money up,
this is what's gonna happen to you.
- Sadly as I hate to say this,
I'm recommending to Shaquille's parents
that he turns NBA.
I do not want to see this young man
blatantly fouled and hurt
and then, because of my selfishness to win,
he doesn't play pro ball.
If he's going to get hurt
and people are going to intentionally foul him
for the 18th time,
he needs to go get money to get hurt.
- He's no ordinary 19-year-old.
Standing 7'1" and weighing in at 285 pounds,
his amazing speed and spectacular skills
have made him, without doubt, the most sought-after
collegiate basketball player in the nation.
- Junior year. Dominated.
Dick Vitale's still screaming my name.
- Shaquille O'Neal!
- Go home, same argument.
But it's the first time I stand up to him.
"Man, fuck that.
They fuckin' me up in school. I'm going."
And it was the first time
he looked back at me and was like--
he realized that he created a man.
And then Mom says, "You know what I'm gonna ask you to do.
Pull it out."
My shit was neat.
Debits, credits, boom, boom, bada-bam, bada-bing.
And she said, "Okay, you ready."
- When you have a dream come alive,
it's just a blessing instead of hard work.
He told me I was never gonna have to worry.
"You won't have to worry about anything.
You gonna be able to get anything that you want."
And I said, "Okay, okay. That's fine."
It's good. It's good for all of us.
- Good afternoon. The mic's on?
[tapping]
Good afternoon. Thank you all for coming.
About to make my statement.
I, Shaquille O'Neal, after careful deliberation,
have decided to forgo my senior year eligibility
at LSU.
I'm not making this decision out of anger or frustration.
I feel that in my heart, it's time for a change
and it's time for me to move on.
I've truly enjoyed every aspect of my college years
as a basketball player and as a student.
I think the experience was very much needed.
But now I am ready to take what I've learned
on with me to the NBA.
And I'd like to thank you people for coming
and thank you for the awards,
and, you know, thank you for everything.
And thank you for listening. Peace.
Any questions?
- Always been our dream to see him play in the NBA.
My dream, you know.
Because I wanted to play,
that's what he playin' in.
Now my son is gonna play in it.
It makes me feel a whole lot better
knowing that my son is able to go farther than what I went,
you know?
That's the main-- that's what it's all about,
you know what I mean, your children going farther
that what you went and doing better
than what you're gonna be doing.
- All right. See you later, guy.
[indistinct chatter]
- I was elated for the family,
because, you know, a superstar,
and they drive up in this old van.
So I knew it was a pivotal thing financially.
[people cheering]
He was gonna help take care of the family.
- Well, Shaquille, this is it, bro.
- We're going to work. - Time to go to work, huh?
- Good evening,
ladies and gentlemen,
and welcome to the 1992 NBA Draft.
[cheers and applause]
- Draft night was special.
My grandmother was there. My mother was there.
Brother, sisters, aunts, uncles, friends.
And then when they called my name, it was like...
- With the first pick in the 1992 NBA Draft,
the Orlando Magic selects Shaquille O'Neal
from Louisiana State University.
[cheers and applause]
- Who, me?
I wanted to cry inside, but being raised by the Sarge,
you're not allowed to be emotional.
You're not allowed to be soft.
[applause]
But in my mind, "I'm here. I'm here.
"All the ass-whuppings,
"all the doubters,
I'm here."
- Well, along with Jack Givens,
this is Chip Caray welcoming you tonight,
the debut of perhaps the most heralded rookie
in the NBA in quite some time, number 32, Shaquille O'Neal.
The Magic and Miami Heat archrivals battling it out.
And the opening tap goes to Miami.
And the Shaquille O'Neal era has begun in the NBA.
- So now you're in the NBA.
All the guys you used to see and then dream about
and look at and drool over,
they're here now.
So I'm like, "You ain't where Hakeem at yet."
♪ ♪
"You ain't where David Robinson at."
- Shaquille O'Neal is not used to this.
- "And you ain't where Ewing at."
- Ewing with the spin.
Ewing--yes!
- I wanted to be that guy.
I wanted what Magic had.
I wanted what Dr. J had.
I wanted what Michael Jordan had.
Michael had all of that. And I wanted that.
How does he do it?
Michael Jordan. Ferocity.
Wanted to be the best ever.
When he gets fouled hard, he's not shakin' nobody hand.
Like, I fouled him one time and went to pick him up.
He said, "Don't do that.
"Don't ever help nobody up. Good foul."
I was like, "Damn."
- And look at that pass. - Oh, they stole it!
- Stolen by Scott.
- Well, obviously, Shaq came in
with all the hype.
He didn't win a championship.
He never made that miraculous Final Four run.
But his dominance...
[whistle blows] - Oh!
- He would shoot 72% from the floor,
and people was like,
"Well, he doesn't have a free throw,"
or, "He doesn't shoot three."
Why would you?
Let the locomotive keep coming down the track.
Until they figure out a way to stop it, keep going.
And I think that's the presence
Shaq brought into the NBA as a rookie.
- So when you lookin' at a god on TV
but then when you see him in real life
and you realize he's not a god,
now that so-called god is in trouble.
- Shaq for two over Olajuwon.
- Sets up O'Neal. Oh, my.
And then lets the crowd know, "I'm here."
- The first time Patrick Ewing shot a fadeaway jump shot
and I'm right there.
- Ewing. - Ooh.
I think I can block that.
So now next time, should get a little closer
when he get on that fadeaway.
My father said, "You show a person respect
"by showing them none.
"I don't give a damn that's Patrick Ewing.
You Shaquille O'Neal."
- Way of operating offensively.
Ewing rejected by O'Neal.
- Yes, sir.
- Boy, that--when does that happen to Patrick Ewing?
Maybe--I don't remember.
- Uh-oh.
Your ass is in trouble.
- We're gonna just stand up
and throw to the commercial. - Okay.
- Standing up.
So does your mic--
I don't think your mic does that--
stretches that far.
Here, hold on. [rustling]
Okay.
We'll be back in a moment.
But first...
I told you what to say. - Oh, I forgot.
- Come here, come here. [whispering indistinctly]
- Yeah. Sorry.
- Go ahead. - This is "Today" on NBC.
One of my superpowers is, I can stop time.
And what I mean by that is, I can foresee stuff
before it happens.
So I had a professor, Tommy Karam.
He pulled me to the side and said,
"Why you don't never want to speak up in the class?"
"'Cause when I g-g-et nervous, I stutter."
Profess-professional athlete.
[stuttering]
So then we used to set up fake interviews.
He used to come in with a little VHS camera,
ask me a question,
and then we'd stop and go over it.
So now I'm practicing at home by myself.
[upbeat music]
Click. Watch.
"Don't come in like you're superintelligent,
"'cause you're not.
"Move that out the way.
"Funny.
"Let them know you're cool.
Be confident. Be humble."
All right. Play. [click]
And then he said the words I needed to hear.
He said, "When you talkin' to that,
that's just more money in your pocket."
Stop. [tape squeals]
I think I'm--Orlando--
S-H-A...
Mickey Mouse.
Q-I-E...
Let me see that hat.
♪ S-H-A-Q-I-E ♪
♪ M-O-U-S-E ♪ [laughter]
You gotta do interviews.
People are gonna love you.
You gonna make so much money on the side.
I played all sports.
- Uh-huh. - I played soccer.
- Were you good at soccer? - I used to kick people.
Yeah. [laughter]
- I'm not sure that's the point of the game.
Ah. Ah, well.
Coming into the NBA, I didn't want to be
a boring big man.
Big guys don't sell. I'm not in that category.
I'm over here in this category.
So I call Arsenio, and I say, "Hey, man.
I want to be on your show, but I want to be different."
"What do you mean, brother?"
I say, "At the end of the show,
can I rap with my favorite rap group?"
- Making his TV debut... [chuckles]
Performing "What's Up Doc?" with his friends,
who happen to be the fastest-rising rap group
on the charts, Shaquille O'Neal and Fu-Schnickens.
- I didn't even know Fu-Shnickens at the time.
- ♪ Yeah, can we rock ♪
♪ Yeah, what's up, Doc ♪
- We practiced the song once or twice,
and then when the show came,
I killed it.
♪ Yo, I'm the hooper, hyper, protected by a viper ♪
♪ When I'm out there hoopin', yo, you better decipher ♪
- They went on and performed.
Next thing you know, they did a music video,
"What's Up, Doc?"
I get a call from Barry Weiss,
the CEO of Jive Records.
He says, "I want to sign Shaq to a record deal."
- Said, "Man, I ain't no rapper."
"$10 million."
"What?" [gears rumbling]
- ♪ Forget Tony Danza, I'm the boss ♪
♪ When it comes to money I'm like Dick the frost ♪
- What a rebound.
He has gone after it with a vengeance.
No look-see, Dennis Scott.
- ♪ That's okay, not being braggadocious ♪
♪ Supercalifragilistic, Shaq is alidocious ♪
♪ Peace, I gotta go, I ain't no joke ♪
- O'Neal sliding...
[whistle blows]
- ♪ What's up, Doc, can we rock ♪
♪ What's up, Doc, can we rock ♪
♪ What's up, Doc ♪
- Goes to Reed. Driving shot.
Blocked by O'Neal out-of-bounds.
- ♪ What's up, Doc, can we rock ♪
- That's the kind of rebound the Magic want from O'Neal.
For Shaquille.
♪ Can we rock ♪
♪ What's up, Doc, can we rock ♪
- I would like to present to Shaquille O'Neal
the Most Valuable Rookie of the Year award.
[applause]
- Another trophy for me,
and I hope I can get an NBA Championship trophy
to go along with it.
When I retire and have children,
I can tell my son, "Son, I was bad."
[laughter]
[chains rattle]
So my agent knew a lot of people.
He says, "They want you to play in this movie."
"I don't care if the movie's terrible or not.
I'm not turning it down."
Before we start shooting, I gotta work out.
So we're running a play, and they're stealing clips.
And then this Penny guy is--
that dude dropped me off nice.
[buzzer blares, crowd cheering]
- And to Hardaway for the jam.
- To me, I had a game plan.
Because what I wanted him to know was that
if I got drafted by the Magic
that I would be giving him the ball
and putting him in position
to be the best that he could be.
So everything that I did was catered
towards making Shaq happy.
- I asked him one day, I said, "How long you been an actor?"
He said, "No, no. I'm from-- I'm Penny Hardaway.
"I went to Memphis State
and I put my name in the draft."
"You did what?"
I can remember Dennis Scott, my best friend on the team,
telling me, "Man, some point, you gonna have to go upstairs,
"and it's gonna have to get ugly, big dog.
This your team."
John Gabriel.
I called him on the phone and said,
"Hey, man, You heard of Penny Hardaway?"
"Oh, yeah, I heard of him. He's really good.
But we probably want to go with Chris Webber."
"Man, I don't need no power forward
"that likes to shoot the ball.
"I need somebody that's gonna give me
"the damn ball.
"If you don't pick the Penny guy, brother,
"I think we gonna have some problems at--
you know, when my deal is up."
- With the first pick in the 1993 NBA Draft,
the Orlando Magic... - Orlando Magic...
[both] Select Chris Webber.
[cheers and applause]
- I tear my back house up.
Break the glass.
"You tellin' me I'm the leader.
And then when I come to you with something and you don't--
I mean, I'm still a pawn.
[touch tones beeping] Callin' him, pissed off.
And then in the middle of the draft...
- Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to report a trade.
Orlando has traded the draft rights
to Chris Webber to Golden State
for the draft rights to Anfernee Hardaway.
- Chris Webber to Golden State for Penny Hardaway.
Now I'm like...
- When the Magic started, the Nick Anderson,
you know, the Scott Skiles, it was fun.
It was, "Hey, the Magic's in town."
But when Shaq came,
it was like they were a real professional team now.
Then draft night,
I look over to Nick Anderson.
I said, "This is Shaq and Penny's team now."
[percussive music]
And everything just took off.
[upbeat music]
- First year with Penny was phenomenal.
He was the true definition of a point guard.
True definition of a point guard
is one that makes players around them better.
- Hardaway feeds O'Neal.
- He was always looking for me first.
- Penny Hardaway fumbles...
- He's looking for me so much, I don't have to tell him,
"Yo, man, I'm tired right now. You shoot."
- Normally got there.
Skiles hit Hardaway, is twisted,
but Shaq hammers it in.
- We didn't have no problems.
No problems, no arguments, no fights.
And they said that we were the youngsters of the future.
- The wave of the future...
- The freight train,
we knew we were gettin' that every night.
We knew Shaq was gonna play hard.
And Penny was so gifted, you just couldn't guard him
at 6'8" as a point guard.
- Penny pattycakes. - Everywhere we went,
from the time Shaq and Penny came together,
was a party.
- Shaq, may I please have an autograph, please?
- That's when we became a household name.
- [vocalizing "Inspector Gadget" theme song]
♪ ♪
Another Dr. Lucille O'Neal quote:
before you succeed,
you must first learn to fail.
We got swept by the Pacers
'cause we didn't know how to win yet.
Wasn't good enough.
We're a young team. They a veteran team.
They know all the tricks, and we wasn't ready yet.
Third year, we got Horace Grant.
- One last time, Horace Grant.
- We were confidence.
Penny was an all-star. I was an all-star.
Everything was flowin' great.
And then you go up against the great Michael Jordan.
- It came in a two-word statement,
"I'm back."
That was really all Jordan needed to say
as his 17-month retirement came to an end.
- The young student must kill the master
to become the master.
Mike is the man.
He left, he comes back.
I don't care if it's Michael on the court.
[dramatic music]
- I knew for us to get over the hump,
we were gonna have to go through the Bulls,
the team that won three championships in a row.
But we knew the competitive nature
of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.
We were the young guns.
♪ ♪
We weren't really caring about any of that.
We just knew that we had to go ball.
- Shaquille O'Neal over Michael.
That's another three for Anfernee Hardaway.
- And that's what we did.
- ♪ I turn to a savage and a beast ♪
- And there's Shaq. - Shaquille.
- Backs him all the way
and goes up and dunks the ball.
- Had some problems at the end of the year.
That's Hardaway with the reverse.
- Jordan hard to the hoop.
The reverse from Michael!
- Shaquille down low.
Ran the double team. Hardaway hammer time.
- Pippen driving, stripped by O'Neal.
O'Neal dunks the ball.
- It's all over.
And the Bulls' season comes to an end
here at the United Center, and the Orlando Magic,
the number one team... - It was like winning
the respect battle.
It was winning the barbershop news.
And that was the bragging rights.
For that weekend, that day, we kicked the Bulls' butt.
- Now, just think about it. You just beat Michael Jordan.
Who else is left?
Ain't nobody else left in the league.
- We weren't worried about playing
the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference final.
- The crowd's standing and cheering,
and they may not sit down till Wednesday.
- We have about six, seven days off.
We partyin'.
Me and D Scott, we in Atlanta at Magic City.
We did a rap song.
- ♪ Just a little bit of magic tonight ♪
B Shaw, myself.
♪ Everything's gonna be all right ♪
Then Penny came by, but Penny didn't really rap.
He was just there.
We were the Showtime of the South.
And we wanted to say, "Hey, we know we're good."
So game one of the finals,
we're rollin'.
I'm hittin' threes.
Shaq's dunkin'. Penny's doing his thing.
- We was up the whole game.
And, like, they come back and they go crazy.
And Nick Anderson, he has the chance
to make two free throws.
He misses,
gets his own rebound, gets fouled again.
I'm like, "Bro, just hit these two free throws
"so we can get this little lead, get it stopped.
We gonna win the first game."
- Well, the three to make four rule, that's--
[chuckles] That's-- - And then Nick misses
those free throws.
- And he misses four straight.
The Rockets... - We lose our mojo.
Tide changes. Hakeem gets hot.
Drexler's doing his thing.
- And then we lost game one.
- The Houston Rockets have stunned
the Orlando Magic. - Now we're worried.
The problem with the finals is,
I was going up against one of my idols
and I showed him too much respect.
[crowd cheering]
Now we come into game two, and they blow us out.
We go to game three in Houston, and we lose.
[cheers and applause]
We go to game four...
[crowd cheering]
They blow us out.
- The Houston Rockets
have swept the Orlando Magic.
- We were still young and naive.
Did we say all the right things in practice?
Did we do all the right things in practice?
Did we come out and play hard?
We did! We tried.
That is--
That is my saddest moment...
To be honest with you.
Because we never...
Got it back.
[upbeat music]
- I'm walking down the street in Chicago.
This lady comes up to me and says,
"You shouldn't do that to your father.
You should give him a second chance."
I'm like, "What are you talking about?"
- Can you imagine losing contact with your son
and being able to hear about him
only through the press?
- And then I get home. I called my mom.
I said, "Mommy, look, did Daddy do something?"
And she's-- "No.
But Joe Toney done went on the 'Ricki Lake' show."
I'm like, "What? Who?"
- Joe Toney is Shaquille O'Neal's birth father
and hasn't spoken to him in over a decade.
He says no matter how hard he has tried
to contact Shaquille,
his requests to see his son have been turned down.
- Basically, when Shaquille was born,
I got in trouble. I was involved with drugs.
And when he was six months old, I got locked up.
I went to prison for five years.
When I came back from prison,
she had married this gentleman in the service
and they moved to Germany.
They gave me a bogus address
at which to get in touch with them which didn't work.
But like I said, I just want to get the message--
I just want a few minutes of his time.
- I can almost believe that he heard about Shaquille
from the time he was becoming national news.
And it probably was burning in him--he missed everything.
But Shaquille didn't care.
He wrote a song about Phil.
He said, "He took me from a boy to a man.
"And Phil is my father
'cause my biological didn't bother."
- ♪ Took me from a boy to a man ♪
"Oh, I just want to see him.
I want to do this. I want to do that."
But in my mind, it's,
"When I was trying to get some shoes, where were you?"
My mom always told me, "Hey, beware.
Once you get this money, everybody comin'."
And he was the first one.
♪ Biological didn't bother ♪
♪ Bother, bother, bother ♪
That year, Penny redid his contract.
He sat out a couple games.
Wanted more money than me, which is fine.
'Cause one thing I understood was marketing and business.
You pay him $30 million, you gotta pay me $60 million.
- It was never in the negotiations
where I was saying I need to make more
than anybody on the team, Shaq or anyone.
I just wanted my worth.
- I create jealousies for myself.
If you have something, internally, I say I want it.
And then I just gotta go get it.
- And then with his tenth three-pointer,
a new NBA record...
- I knew that Shaq has to get the first shot.
If you didn't understand that about him,
then that's where you were gonna have problems.
Being the biggest guy in the room,
he wants the biggest and the most of everything.
That's for his own ego.
Our team was young, pretty immature.
I think that that slowly started to affect
the camaraderie or lack of it.
- That's the first part of destroying a franchise,
destroying a team,
because your two best players need to be on the same page.
Like, he was upset that I was getting
more money or the same amount of money
or that he deserved more.
But I felt like he was the man
and that they were gonna do for him what needed to be done.
- We came back next year. We're rollin'.
But it wasn't that same feeling.
Is Shaq stayin' now? Is Shaq leavin'?
Is he gettin' a contract?
Everything changed.
[buzzer blares]
- A look at the starting lineups.
The Magic will start without Shaquille O'Neal.
- Well, in 1996, my grandmother died.
After the funeral, I just needed a couple days
to just relax.
But they callin' me, "We're playin' the Bulls.
Come, come, come." Like, "No, I'm not comin'."
That's more important to them than my family.
A damn game.
- Here comes Shaquille O'Neal.
With a sense of drama,
Shaquille O'Neal just arrived at the arena.
He is hustling back to the Orlando locker room
and, obviously, will try to get himself into uniform
and will be appearing on the bench.
- So I come in the middle. We lose.
And I do something I wasn't supposed to do.
I go upstairs and say,
"We startin' off at $115 million."
They, whoever they may be, did a poll.
"Is Shaq worth $115 million?"
And the town said no.
- Well, I just think if Shaq is as good
as he thinks he is, why do they ever have
25, 30 rebounds in a game?
Why didn't he step up in the fourth quarter?
You know, he was... - Shaquille O'Neal,
who's already a millionaire and has a mansion,
how much more does he need?
- How dare you ask the community
should he be paid that much?
You know better.
Or maybe you don't.
- I just think that the man didn't want to play
for the Magic anymore because he wasn't
the main man anymore because we got Penny.
- It reminded me of Snoop Dogg at the Source Awards.
- The East Coast don't love Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg?
- Orlando Magic, y'all don't love Shaquille O'Neal?
- Y'all don't love us? - Y'all don't love me?
- Shaq wanted to stay with the Orlando Magic.
He was a small-town guy.
Instead of offering
the most dominant player in basketball a max deal,
they started playing around trying to negotiate with him.
It really made him feel disrespected.
- There's no loyalty in any game.
So get a call from my guy.
He said, "They offered you $80 million for four.
I'm like, "That's cool. I could take that."
Basketball gods or something said, "Don't do it."
- How much he get?
- Congratulations, Zo.
Man, I'm just, you know, hoping to get
a pretty good deal.
The Miami Heat signed Juwan for $110 million
and Alonzo for $115 million.
And I'm like, "I done killed both of them
their whole career."
- Oh! Oh, what a dunk.
- If a top-of-the-line BMW costs $110 million,
what does a top-of-the-line Mercedes cost?
Much more.
So then we're in the Olympics. We're trainin'.
Uncle Jerome and I were out--
at a gentleman's club, I may add.
- I remember he got a call from his agent at the time
that we had to meet him.
It was, like, early in the morning.
When we get there,
his agent is there and Mr. West is there.
- And then he was like, "Jerry, tell him."
And Jerry says, "We got some good news
and I got some bad news."
And I said, "What's the bad news?"
He said, "I can't get you that $115 million."
I said, "What's the good news?"
"I can get you to $120 million."
I was like...
- As a basketball player, I cried.
Shaq on the floor makes life easier
because he's that dominant.
- I didn't know that he was leaving Orlando
until I saw the actual press conference
with him holding a Laker jersey
with Jerry West.
- Didn't communicate at all.
Not one time did we call each other
and talk to each other and talk it out.
- Penny didn't even know.
But all I really wanted was for Penny to go
to the Orlando and say, "Pay Shaq.
"Shaq stuck up for me. Now I'm stickin' up for him.
Pay him." But he never did that.
So in my mind, I was like, "Okay, you want to be the man?
There you go."
In case you haven't figured it out yet,
I've signed with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Keep in mind the word "change."
To me, change is for the good.
And right when I'm signin', Jerry West says to me,
"In a couple years, you're gonna be
"one of the best basketball players
ever to play the game."
Pause. I was like, "You know what?
You might be right."
[gears rumbling]
[bright tone]