It would be very easy to mistake a young Shaquille O’Neal for a grown man even when the four-time NBA champion was just a teen.
Former LSU head coach Dale Brown sure did.
O’Neal went on “In Depth with Graham Bessinger” and told a story of a time when Brown mistakingly took O’Neal for much more than a grown man.
Brown took a trip to a military base in Germany where he met O’Neal who was 13-years-old at the time. O’Neal’s stepfather Phillip Arthur Harrison relocated the family from New Jersey to Germany as Harrison was stationed there for work.
When Harrison found out that Brown was going to be on base, he quickly woke up his stepson, who at the time was already 6-foot-6. Knowing he would not be able to put O’Neal through college, he encouraged Shaq to introduce himself to the LSU coach.
The first time Brown saw O’Neal his first question was, “How long have you been in the army, soldier?”
To which O’Neal replied, “I’m not in the army, I’m 13.”
Shocked, Brown immediately sought to talk to Harrison about O’Neal.
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Aftermath of the Shaquille O’Neal story
After Brown left, O’Neal didn’t see him again until college, but continued to write letters to him seeking advice. A late bloomer, O’Neal struggled through his first few years of high school basketball. But he would write to Brown almost every day asking for advice and workout plans to make him better.
“He would send me speeches from Dr. Martin Luther King,” O’Neal said. “But then I started following his advice and I started to come around now. By the time I get to San Antonio my junior year (of high school), I’m a monster. Everybody in the country wanted me and now I see the light.”
Brown went on to coach O’Neal from 1989 to 1992. In that time, O’Neal was a two-time All-American, two-time SEC Player of the Year and received the Adolph Rupp Trophy.
O’Neal then went on to be the No. 1 pick in the 1992 NBA Draft and won four NBA championships (3 with the Los Angeles Lakers and one with the Miami Heat). He was then inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016.
