“What the F*ck Did I Say?!”: Sergeant Father Smashed Shaquille O’Neal’s Face Only to Teach Him Basketball

NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal was raised by his mother and his stepfather. His stepfather, Phillip A. Harrison, was a Sergeant in the U.S. Army and that certainly entailed a strict household. O’Neal has credited his stepfather a lot for the man that he is today. The four-time NBA champion has multiple times talked about and appreciated the way Harrison chose to raise him as a child. But sometimes the tough love went a little too far.

Phillip A. Harrison married Shaq’s mother Lucille O’Neal after his biological father abandoned his family. Harrison raised Shaq as his own and O’Neal considered Harrison as his father. Shaq did not even know that Harrison was his stepfather till he was 11 years old. However, he had a special bond with him.

Shaquille O’Neal revealed his father’s teaching methods

Shaquille O’Neal recently talked about his relationship with him and revealed his father’s unorthodox ways of teaching. In the first episode of the SHAQ documentary, O’Neal revealed an incident from his childhood on how his stepfather taught him the game of basketball.

He said, “One day he said, put your hands on your side, and don’t move! And he threw the ball and I moved and he was like, ‘What the f*ck did I say?! Don’t move!’” 

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“And I gotta put my hands on my side and chest pass, right to the face. Boom! And he was like, ‘See?’ The point that he was trying to make was, stop being scared of the ball. Because even if you get hit, this is how it’s gonna feel,” he added.

Be it as it may, it sure did work. Because O’Neal went on to become a powerhouse in the league. There was no one in the NBA that could stop him during his prime. He could move players at will and it took more than just double teams and hard fouls to slow him down. He then became an All-Time great. The Big Aristotle credits his stepfather for the man that he is today.

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O’Neal has had a strained relationship with his biological father. He only met his father after continuous persuasion from his mother. His biological father, Joseph Toney got to meet his son at a restaurant in New Jersey.

What do you think about the training method of Shaq’s stepfather? Let us know in the comments section.