A recent interview brought out some new, never-before-heard info (at least for this reporter) on Shaquille O’Neal in his younger days. An interview conducted by sports and celebrity reporter Graham Bensinger from five years ago was recently unearthed by the website Sportscasting.com. In the interview, Shaq tells how a “geek” saved his life… but it happened in a very different way.
Shaq talked about being a bully growing up. Not surprisingly, he was always the big kid in school…way bigger and stronger than all the other school kids. Still, Shaq says he was often bullied for his size, too. He says that led him to start bullying back…at least until an incident with one of his “victims” changed him forever.
O’Neal says it happened in the fifth grade:
“One day, I had a spit wad and I threw it at the chalkboard. It splattered and this kid rats me out. Prior to that, my father said, ‘If you get suspended again, I’m gonna kill you. I’m going to beat you like you’ve never been beaten before. You’re irresponsible and you’re a medium-level juvenile delinquent.’ I go to the office. Three days (suspended) and now I gotta go home and I already know what I’m getting when I get home. But before I go home, I’m gonna whoop your ass.
“So I’m beating this kid up and I’m kicking this kid and he has an epileptic seizure. It’s just me and the kid and he’s on the ground shaking. Now, I’m frightened. A guy comes and saves the kid. I got home and got disciplined and my mother said, ‘You’re too big and too strong. You can’t ever do that again.’ That kinda stayed with me. I didn’t want to do that anymore. Let me go to Plan B. I was always the class clown, funny guy. So I just stuck with that rather than being a bully.”
Shaq goes on to say that after that particular incident, he flipped a switch and became more understanding of others…and even befriended the boy:
“Everybody was bullying this guy. He was cool. He never said anything. We called him McDougal. I wish I could remember his name. Everyone was messing with him so I came in and said if you mess with McDougal, you gotta mess with me. I was sitting at the lunch table and he came to me and said he appreciated it. He said, ‘I hear you’re having some problems in government (class). I can help you out.’ Every day after school, he would tutor me. The way he tutored me, I was like this really isn’t that bad. Because I had self-doubts, I was like I’ll never pass anyway. He helped me out and that’s when I realized that nerds and geeks are very cool people.”
Shaq says that experience taught him a much-valued lesson about how to not judge others, and to be good to others as best one can. Good stuff! Check the video below for the complete interview.
