“Nothing You can Say or do to Me that’s gonna Hurt My Feelings!”: Shaquille O’Neal describes a bullying incident from childhood, talks about his father
NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal talks about his childhood, describing a bullying incident involving his stepfather and a scarecrow.
When you think of Shaquille O’Neal, you imagine a 7-foot-1, 325-pound man who is generous and has a great sense of humor. That description is perfectly accurate, but it wasn’t always like that. From when he was a kid, to his entire NBA journey, Shaq was a threat.
A giant of 7’1 who was almost guaranteed the goal since he arrived in the paint.
Shaq terrified the entire NBA. The trainers tried to find ways to stop the big man and were often unsuccessful. One of the reasons behind Shaq’s greatness was his stepfather, Sergeant Phillip Arthur Harrison. Although he may not have given Shaq the genes he possesses, his stepfather has had a very important role to play.
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He introduced Shaq to the game of basketball and taught him discipline. Using the knowledge his stepfather passed on to him, Shaq became one of the game’s all-time greats.
Shaquille O’Neal shares a childhood bullying story and explains how he remains unflappable
Being in the NBA, there will always be fans and haters alike. When you’re dominating your opponents like Shaq used to, his fans are bound to get salty and try to say mean things. However, due to his stepfather’s teachings, Shaq knew how to stay calm and not get upset about such things.
On an episode of The Big Podcast with Shaq, the big man said:
“I’m from New Jersey. I was raised by a drill sergeant. There is nothing you can say or do to me that will hurt my feelings. You can talk about my mom, you can talk about my dad.
You’re not going to hurt my feelings. If I get angry, I’m going to react, in a way that you’re not going to like. So let’s go to high school: I pull up, there’s a black scarecrow hanging from a tree with my t-shirt on it. So now I’m already angry. But listen, I know psychology. I know they are trying to scare me. My dad down there. He sees that he leaves, he looks, he says: I’ve got your back.
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Having a scarecrow hanging from the tree with his sweater like that would have been very distressing. However, Shaq didn’t let the same thing bother him and used it as motivation to chase his opponents down even more in the next game.
