Emotional Shaquille O’Neal Prides Over His Army Military Training, Reveals Why Orlando Honor Will Be Sad

The next few weeks will be a memorable one for Shaquille O’Neal, who is all set to get his jersey retired by the Orlando Magic on February 13. This is indeed one of the biggest honors of his career, but the basketball legend believes all this love and respect should go to his late stepfather, Philip Harrison. Shaquille O’Neal got his jersey retired by two other teams, the LA Lakers and the Miami Heat, in the last decade. Yet, this one with the Orlando Magic is the closest to him for a few reasons, and the 4-time champion is sad that his father will not be able to savor these moments. 

The 51-year-old got his jersey retired by the Lakers in April 2013, soon after which his military father passed away. He was not alive to witness the Miami Heat retiring Shaq’s jersey. The same goes for the upcoming honor, but Shaq will reminisce about the memorable moments he had with his father. One of them would be the harsh military training that his dad gave him. Looking back on an infamous moment of his, the 2000 MVP shared, “When I was getting laughed at in high school for not being able to dunk, my father would just take me and we’d do the army military training.“

Harrison would whisper into Shaq’s ears, “I’ll get you better than Kareem”. This encouragement is where it all started for Shaq. Devastatingly, the late sergeant who shaped Shaq’s life and who wanted his son to be on a big stage like this will not be alive to cherish it. Shaq revealed, “It actually makes me sad”. The Big Diesel would be unheard of if not for his stepfather.

This is a developing story…

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