In 1994, Shaq Diesel rapped in “Biological Don’t Bother” that Phillip Harrison, “was the one who took me from a boy to a man”. The entire song summed up Shaquille O’Neal’s relationship with his step-father. The former basketball player’s mother, Lucille O’Neal, had spoken about becoming a single mother at 16, after O’Neal’s biological father, Joseph Toney went to jail. Years later, she met Phil at a local city mall, with him taking the father figure role almost immediately. They made their blended family work, and most of all, Harrison formed a strong bond with a young Shaq.

As the late Sarge’s reputation goes, Lucille told Sonya Curry, “Phil was a disciplinarian, he was a strong man, he was really a man’s man.” That fit the criteria of the kind of male role model Lucille wanted for her son. She was clear to Harrison from the start that she and Shaq are a unit. In that same song dedicated to Harrison, Shaq called it, “a million dollar package deal,” that Harrison fully accepted.

While Harrison ran a tight ship, Lucille calls herself “the buffer” and “the peacemaker” between the Sarge and their kids. Sonya Curry, who grew up in a blended family herself, asked how they struck the balance. “It worked well because we took that word ‘step’ out of our home. You’re not the stepfather, you’re the father and it worked.”

Harrison and O’Neal had to keep the family unit together through his military career. That entailed leaving New Jersey and moving to Germany and other cities. By the time Shaq was in his teens, he was starting to butt heads with his dad. However, Harrison handled it himself.

“They went through it, they got through it, and I stepped aside…” Lucille said, reflecting on how Harrison was the primary motivator of Shaq’s dreams. He would take the young Shaq to watch the basketball games of Julius Erving, Walt Frazier, and Earl Monroe and motivated him to keep at whatever he was doing to be among these names one day. “And I call it planting the seed but he helped him on the journey do the work necessary,” Lucille relays.

Shaq struggled with the sport initially, but Harrison kept encouraging him. Finally, it was at a Knicks game that the father-son duo attended that changed the future superstar’s life. Watching the crowd’s reaction to Erving’s play was the fire young Diesel needed.

Lucille and Phillip raised their children together for 20 years before parting ways in 2013. However, they were there for most of Shaq’s career, including the day Orlando Magic drafted him and when he won his championships.

Without the Sarge, there would be no Shaq

Shaquille O’Neal didn’t know Harrison was not his biological father until he was 11 years old—until he realized they didn’t share the same last name. Despite the family dynamics, the retired US army sergeant considered his step-child his own “flesh and blood” from day one. So what did Shaq do after he received his first paycheck?

He took out $150,000 out of his $1 million paycheck and paid off his parent’s debt. Later, he gifted the pair Mercedes Benz cars, bought them a house, and employed them to work for him. After Harrison’s passing on September 10, 2013 after a decade long battle with diabetes and hypertension, The Big Aristotle was so distraught that he attempted to embark on a six-hour drive before his friend helped him with a private jet.

In honor of his late stepfather, the retired player even dedicated an award room in house to the old man: “The Philip Arthur Harrison Memorial Room”. When Orlando Magic retired his number, he mentioned that he wished his father was there to see it. The way Lucille reflects on it now shows how Shaq and Phil grew their bond.

Lucille’s narrations sound very close to what Shaq already said in his 30-year-old song. “I couldn’t do a damn thang with all them F’s, Age 15 father and son confrontation that’s nothin, But father and son trials and tribulation, Back then I could understand but I’m glad you did it.”

The entire song is an ode of gratitude in rhyme to Harrison. Side note: Lucille said Shaq assumed she was jealous her husband got a song and not him. As for Harrison,

Stay tuned for more such updates. And join us for the exciting second episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and Mountain West All-Freshman Team Selection, Asia Avinger.