“You could have killed that kid”: Shaquille O’Neal’s father pounded him for sending a kid into seizure
Los Angeles Lakers living legend Shaquille O’Neal faced brutal beatings from his father for nearly killing a child.
Shaquille O’Neal is an immensely successful athlete.
His cruelty and strength were unrivaled. Inside the paint, O’Neal was a threat. He could go toe to toe with any center or forward and come out victorious.
Having led the Lakers to a hat-trick, Shaq is a Los Angeles legend. However, long before his undisputed supremacy, O’Neal was just a vulnerable child.
He came from a family with financial problems, with dreams of becoming rich. Back then, no one knew that Shaq would reach such heights. And his father regularly beat him up for getting out of line.
The vicious cycle of breaking the rules and being mistreated by his father turned O’Neal into a bully.
On one occasion, Shaq hit a boy so hard that he had a seizure.
O’Neal: “So I’m punching this guy and kicking him and he’s having an epileptic seizure. It’s just me and the kid and he’s on the ground shaking. Now I’m scared. A guy comes and saves the kid. I came home and they disciplined me and my mother said, ‘You are too big and too strong. You can’t do that ever again. That stayed with me. I didn’t want to do that anymore. Let me go to Plan B. I was always the class clown, the funny guy. So I stuck with that instead of being a bully.”
Shaquille O’Neal’s father responded harshly to the episode
The Great Aristotle, in his book Shaq Uncut, revealed the consequences.
He wrote: “My father beat me like a fool for it. Every time he hit me, he would say, “Idiot! You could have killed that boy. You would be in jail for the rest of your life.”“
Shaquille O’Neal believed that his father, although he beat him regularly, was not violent. According to the 7’1″ center, his father’s actions made him who he is.
The reason Sarge beat up Shaq so much was because he didn’t want his son to become another version of him. He wanted his child to be better than his father.
While it doesn’t condone the brutal beatings he gave his son, it clearly highlights how the man thought. For him, instilling fear of authority and the need to be better as a human being were of paramount importance.
He wanted Shaq to succeed without being brought down by his own self-destructive tendencies. His methods were definitely violent and heartbreaking. But for Shaq, they still have meaning.
Do you think Shaq is right to justify his father’s actions?
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