Have you ever encountered someone who resembles an NBA player? The 15-time NBA All-Star, Shaquille O’Neal certainly has. Shaq never misses a beat with his uproarious antics. From one of the globe’s most gifted and entertaining personas, here is the story of the 4x NBA champion’s encounter with a lookalike of another basketball titan.

The Big Aristotle in his autobiography, ‘Shaq Uncut,’ reveals the entire story and how spending time with the lookalike improved his playing style. Let’s find out more about it.

Shaquille O’Neal met Larry Bird’s lookalike Mitch Riles

The O’Neal family stayed in Germany which was 4000 miles away from his hometown, New Jersey, due to Shaq’s stepfather, Phillip A. Harrison’s job. As mentioned in the book, in 1984, the 12-year-old O’Neal met a kid named Mitch Riles in Germany. Surprisingly, Riles looked exactly like Boston Celtics icon Larry Bird. To add to that, he was also a basketball player with impressive shooting skills. 

Recalling his childhood friend, O’Neal wrote, “Not long after we moved to Germany, I met this white guy named Mitch Riles and he looked exactly like Larry Bird.” He added, “He had the long hair and the same ugly nose and he could shoot his a** off.” In his autobiography, the legend further explains how the young boy helped elevate his skills and confidence.

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Shaq used to play against Mitch Riles 

Shaq expressed that he would imagine Riles as Bird, engaging in matchups. The Los Angeles Lakers icon decided that he also had to play like Bird’s rival, Magic Johnson. During their games, he would think about how to improve. Speaking of the games played with Riles, he said, “So he’s got the Bird thing down, so now I’ve got to get the Magic Johnson routine down. That means I’ve got to learn how to dribble, make the no-look pass, all that stuff.”

While talking about his play style, he said, “We’re out there every day playing Magic vs. Bird, Celtics vs. Lakers, and I’m learning skills that big men don’t ever show. I’m developing some moves.

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