Shaquille O'Neal pays tribute to those who helped him become NBA great
Before being honored at the NBA All-Star Game as one of the 75 greatest players in NBA history, Shaquille O’Neal paid tribute to those who helped him. The NBA legend took a moment to give credit to everyone who helped him become the player he was, both on the court and off.
Shaquille O’Neal’s touching tribute
“My speech is gonna’ be a little lengthy,” warned O’Neal as he began. “I’d like to thank [O’Neal’s stepfather] Sergeant Phillip Arthur Harrison. He’s the guy that told me one day that I would be here. I was a medium level — high level juvenile delinquent. I was always told I would never ever, ever make it. He convinced me to do well in school. To do well in school for me was all C’s. I get all C’s, he takes me to Madison Square Garden. Dr. J goes baseline [and] throws it down. The crowd goes wild.
“I looked at him and said ‘Sir, this is what I want to be when I grow up.’ His exact words — ‘If you listen to me, I’ll make you one of the most dominant big men ever.’ And he named Bill Russell, he named Kareem and he named Wilt Chamberlain. I never knew those names. I knew Dr. J. I got in trouble in high school for trying to be like Dr. J… And here comes another big man, he’s 6’9″, he’s flashy, he’s hip-hop, he has style — Magic Johnson.”
As O’Neal continued to pay tribute to everybody who helped develop him into the basketball player he became, he took a moment to reflect on the impact his fellow TNT co-host, Charles Barkley, had on him.
“I wanted to be like Patrick Ewing, I wanted to be like all these guys. And I’m sitting there in the photo shoot and I’m like ‘Oh my God, there’s Dr. J. There’s Magic. There’s the great Charles Barkley,'” he said. “Charles taught me how to be ferocious and not give a damn what nobody say. Throw them ‘bows. Knock some teeth out.”
Before closing his thanks to everybody that helped him along the way, O’Neal took a chance to thank his father and sister and express his sadness that they couldn’t be there for his moment. Alongside his father and sister, O’Neal expressed his sadness that his longtime teammate and fellow champion Kobe Bryant wasn’t there with them.
Adding to the weight of him sharing his tribute during the NBA celebration, his fellow hosts of Inside The NBA listened to O’Neal’s entire speech and were touched by the words he shared with them.