“Idolize Shaquille O’Neal, You Idolized Charles Barkley”: After His NFL Dreams Were Tarnished, LeBron James’ 6’8 Buddy’s NBA Ambitions Were Rejuvenated by His Father

The NBA world is well aware of the love basketball royalty has towards football. Some NBA stalwarts do not just love football, they have even played the sport and fantasized about a football career. Superstar LeBron James is one such NBA icon who had a football stint as a youngster. Similar to James, one of his Cleveland teammates too had hoped to build a football career. Idolizing Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley as he grew up, LeBron’s friend would later realize that basketball is his destiny.

LeBron James’ friend recently recalled how upset he was when his football dreams got tarnished. Thankfully, his father would ask him to live up to his basketball idols, and that made all the difference.

LeBron James’ ex-teammate recalls how he chose basketball over football

Back in 2016, LeBron James ended Cleveland’s curse and brought home a title. Alongside King James was the All-Star forward Kevin Love. Kevin Love has recently spoken about his illustrious career at length in an interview with Graham Bensinger. As Love puts it, he wanted to be a quarterback as a child.

However, his high school team, Lake Oswego, would prefer to keep him as a linebacker due to his weight. He would only be a quarterback only if he brought down his weight.

“They put it out of the realm of possibility to even be quarterback. But as I said, my dad took me down to the painted area and showed me. He said, ‘hey listen you idolize Shaquille O’Neal, you idolized Charles Barkley, guys like that you know position you’re going to play as you get older and he said this is your football down here,” Kevin Love said, recalling his father’s words.

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Shortly afterward, Kevin Love revealed how big a Shaquille O’Neal fan he was as a youngster.

Kevin Love spills beans on being a Shaquille O’Neal fanboy

Kevin Love revealed that he was a part of the Shaq fan club and always wanted to see Shaq’s videos. “I was a part of Shaq fan club and like you know, they’d send back the letters and all the stuff and then the VHS tapes in the mail, and like I actually thought it was coming from him,” Love said.

Besides, he had a fanboy moment with Shaq, when his father took him and his brother to an Orlando Magic game. As per Love’s father’s request, O’Neal had then acknowledged the little boys who rushed to see their idol.

Flash-forward to this day, Kevin Love has made his name heard loud on a stage that was once dominated by Shaquille O’Neal. From his iconic Shaq moment, Love learned how to treat fans, especially kids. Love also mentioned that he, to this day is indebted to Shaq for that valuable lesson and moment.

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