Shaquille O'Neal shares terrifying moment going against Michael Jordan: “The first time I felt fear…There’s God”
Before Shaquille O'Neal even entered the NBA, there was already plenty of attention on the collegiate sensation. In fact, when O'Neal played in college, Larry Bird said in an interview that a big man at LSU was going to completely change the NBA.
Fast forward, and O'Neal had essentially taken the NBA by storm during his rookie year. His combination of speed, size and strength made him a nightmare matchup for any opponent. With an ability to run in transition unlike any other big man in NBA history O'Neal put the league on notice.
Despite that, there was one time that O'Neal recalled as the first he was truly afraid in the NBA. Growing up with a drill sergeant father, there wasn't much that left O'Neal shook. Still, when he played at the old Chicago Stadium and the announcer introduced Michael Jordan, O'Neal needed a second to compose himself.
"Craziest rookie memory was the first time I felt fear," O'Neal said. "Let me tell you what happens. Chicago Stadium, you're coming out – this was when technology wasn't really in a lot of arenas –it goes dark, then you see the laser light show. You hear this voice 'Home of the Chicago Bulls!' I'm like, 'There he is. There's god.'
"And I'm looking at him and all this stuff I'd seen as a kid , he's doing it. Then, he does a dunk in the warm-up I'm, 'Oh man, I'm about to play against this man. Bout to get killed.'"
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The other time Shaquille O'Neal thought he saw God
As Shaquille O'Neal has recalled before, there was another time he thought he saw his idea of God in the flesh. Growing up as a troubled kid, O'Neal was a bully, and all these years later he's never shied away from admitting it.
His adoptive father, Sgt. Philip Arthur Harrison, was the one who got O'Neal to succeed in school. Only for Shaq, succeeding in school was getting "C" grades. When he managed to pull his grades up to Cs, it was Harrison who took him to see the Knicks play the Philadelphia 76ers in Madison Square Garden.
As he recalled years later, when he saw Julius Erving drive baseline and dunk, he immediately knew that he wanted to be a basketball player. The moment served as a turning point for a young Shaq, who turned to his father and said he wanted to be like Doctor J.
As the story goes, O'Neal's father told him that if the young delinquent listened, he would turn him into one of the greatest centers the game had ever seen. The pitch worked, and O'Neal ended up playing collegiate basketball at LSU.
There, he was woken up from a nap one day by Dr. J, leading him to believe that he was having an out-of-body experience. When he woke up with his idol's hand on his chest, he questioned if he was dead.
"I was like, ‘God? God is a Black man?’ And then I said, ‘Dr. J?’ After I said that, I thought I was dead. I said, ‘Damn, I’m dying in college? Can you believe this?’ And it was Dr. J. We talked, and we had a good conversation.”