Shaquille O'Neal
Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal (born March 6, 1972 in Newark, New Jersey) is the one of the most dominant basketball players today and currently plays for the Miami Heat.
At 7'1", 365 pounds (2.16 m, 165 kg), he dwarfs even NBA players. O'Neal, commonly known as Shaq, led the Los Angeles Lakers to 3-straight NBA titles (2000, 2001, 2002). He was named MVP of the Finals all three times and has the highest scoring average for a center in Finals history. He was also voted the 1999-2000 regular season Most Valuable Player, almost becoming the first unanimous MVP in NBA history. O'Neal was the youngest person named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History and has been voted to and played in the All-Star Game every year since his rookie season in 1993, except for 1999 when there was a lockout and the All-Star Game was cancelled. O'Neal has also improved into one of the leagues best defenders, receiving All-NBA-Defensive honors in 1999-2000, 2000-01 and 2002-03.
O'Neal's game is based around his massive frame, and an athleticism and agility befitting a much smaller player. Lacking a jump shot, he scores most points with dunks. Not surprisingly, his dunks are more dramatic as any "jam" by other players. However, not everyone has been awed by his power: John Wooden has dismissed his game as "a dunker." He is unstoppable at the low block, and analysts say O'Neal is the most unguardable player in the past 30 years and often compare him to the legendary Wilt Chamberlain. O'Neal is also an outstanding rebounder at both ends of the court, and a good shot-blocker. O'Neal does have a famous weakness: he is a very poor free-throw shooter. His FT percentage of around 50% is a level below most amateur club players. He virtually never attempts three-point shots, but has no real need to do so. He did hit one against the Milwaukee Bucks in 1996.
He was named "Shaquille Rashaun" ("Little Warrior" in Arabic) by his father, Joseph Toney. A star high school basketball player from a prominent Newark family, Toney attended Seton Hall, but dropped out when he became addicted to drugs. He was sent to federal prison for a check-forging operation he began to buy drugs in December 1972. Shaq's mother, Lucille, then married Phillip Harrison, whom Shaq considers his "real" father. Toney told an interviewer he lost track of his son until he saw him in a prep all-star game on TV. Toney said he was told Shaq would see him after a 1992 Orlando Magic/New Jersey Nets game, but Shaq never showed. O'Neal has said he has no desire to meet Toney, who was living in a Newark Goodwill facility as of 2002, and even cut a scathing rap song about him called "Biological Didn't Bother."
Shaq lived a good part of his childhood in Germany, where Harrison was stationed with the Army. It was there that he learned to play basketball. As a young man, he attended Louisiana State University, where he first became known by many basketball fans around the globe. In 1992 he was chosen by the Orlando Magic, and he helped the team to 41 wins that year, missing the playoffs by one game. He further raised his fame that year with two backboard-shattering dunks, both on national TV: The first came against the Phoenix Suns on NBC and the other against the New Jersey Nets on TNT.
In the 1993-94 season, Shaq helped the Magic to their first playoff berth ever, and he also debuted in Hollywood, and released a rap CD, named Shaq Diesel. The movie Blue Chips, alongside teammate Anfernee Hardaway and Nick Nolte, marked his Hollywood debut.
In 1994-1995, O'Neal and Hardaway helped their team reach the NBA Finals, but they were swept in four games by Hakeem Olajuwon, Kenny Smith, and the rest of the Houston Rockets. After the 1995-1996 season, Shaq, asking for 120 million dollars over seven years, left Orlando to join the Lakers.
During the winter of 2002-2003, O'Neal became involved in a controversy when it was revealed that, while being interviewed by a Fox TV reporter the previous June 28, he said: "Tell Yao Ming, 'Ching chong yang wah ah soh,'" and making simulated kung fu gestures while uttering the words. The incident received scant attention at the time, but when an audio clipping of it was replayed several times by Fox Sports Radio on two consecutive days in mid-December, 2002 a media firestorm erupted, with many Asian-American advocacy groups demanding that O'Neal apologize. Not only did he do so, but several months later he even appeared with Yao in a telethon on Chinese television to raise money for victims of the SARS epidemic.
In 2004, following a NBA Finals loss to the Detroit Pistons, O'Neal said that he would not return to the Lakers and asked to be traded. On July 14, he was officially traded to the Miami Heat for Caron Butler, Lamar Odom, Brian Grant and a first-round draft pick.
In addition to cameo appearances, Shaq has made it to the big screen in "Blue Chips" (1994) with Nick Nolte, "Kazaam" (1996) and "Steel" (1997).
O'Neal married long-time girlfriend Shaunie Nelson on December 26, 2002; they have 3 children: Shareef Rashaun, Amirah Sanaa, and Shaquir Rashaun. He also has a daughter, Taahirah, by ex-girlfriend Arnetta Yardbourgh.
