 Welcome to the complete collection of Shaquille O'Neal's greatest stories, told by NBA players and legends. If you have missed any of the other episodes in this series, there is a playlist link in the description box down below and on the top right corner of your screen. If you would like to make a recommendation on a play you would like to see an episode on, be sure to comment down below which play you would like to see next. And thank you to everyone who recommended I make an episode on Shaq. Lastly if you do enjoy this video, I would really appreciate if you guys could hit that like button. These episodes do take me a long time to edit and create so I would really appreciate it if you could just quickly hit that like button. If you are new and you think you may enjoy these types of videos, be sure to hit that subscribe button and turn that notification bell on so you don't miss an episode in this series. Without further ado, welcome to the complete collection of Shaquille O'Neal's greatest stories. And I almost would rather him have kicked my ass for the fact that he didn't even recognize that I was there. If Shaq had your work, he'd be the greatest of all time by far. He'd be the first to tell you that. Oh, good idea. Another great L.A. story is of course Shaq was on top of his game, you know, they were winning every year and you know he was a force that nobody's ever seen. So coach Nelson, Donny, I had the idea, okay, you're going to guard Shaq. And I kind of looked at him and I was like, okay, is this a joke? He's like, every time he crosses half court, you just stand in front of him. You basically front him everywhere he goes. And when they lob it over, he comes big Sean Bradley and then you guys kind of trap him and it's going to work. And the game starts right away. He of course kind of seals me. I get around lob comes Sean comes. He basically elbows us both out of the way and dunks it as hard as he could. And next time around, same thing. So of course the plan didn't work at all. We were both way too skinny to handle him. He ended up having like 46 points. I mean, just dunking on us and he was just, he was so much bigger than everybody, so much wider, but he was so agile and so he had a good touch around the basket. Yeah, just his footwork and powerful. I mean, he was, so that was, that was my Shaq story. I tried to guard him and he left the game with 46 and probably 24 or something. That's the last time you heard it. Yeah, that was the only time I ever guarded Shaq. Who would Shaq be if he had your work ethic? He'd be the greatest of all time. If Shaq had your work ethic. He'd be the greatest of all time. Greatest of all time by my mind. For sure. He'd be the first to tell you that, for sure. I mean, this guy was a force, like I have never seen. I mean, he was crazy. You know, a guy at that size, generally guys at that size are a little timid and they don't want to be tall. They don't want to be big. Man, this dude was, he did not care. He was mean. He was nasty. He was competitive. He was vindictive. I mean, he was, yeah, I wish he was in the gym. I would have had fucking 12 rings. He had the work ethic. My God, yeah. Way to be close. My first year we were playing and he kept posting up. But they kept fouling him. So he kept going to the free throw line and kept missing him. And so he'd throw the ball out to me. I'm not throwing that shit back in there. So I kept shooting him, right? So we get in the timeout and he's like, hey, I'm open. I'm like, OK. So we go out and say, hey, I'm open. OK, come back in. Hey, dude, you got to throw me the ball. I said, man, fuck that. Get it off the rebound if I miss, bro. He told him this. First year. 18 years old, man. 18 years old. I must have been out of my damn mind. I'll tell you the story. So Jack is an offensive rebound. And the coaches say, you're the 50% shooter. You've got to foul him. And don't let him get an end one. Our coaches would always say, if Shaq gets the ball down though and you're coming to help, you've got to foul him. And so every single game you had people. I remember one game you got it underneath and I swung as hard as I possibly could. Took the elevator right. Got you. I took the elevator right up. Felt like I broke my wrist. To my credit, you didn't get the basket. You had to go to the free throw line, which was our goal. So he gets an offensive rebound on behind him, right? And he goes down and he goes up and I'm like, I got to foul Shaq. And I come down two hands as hard as I can. Almost like a horse collar, but I'm just going to like, I'm going to just destroy this man, right? It's not going to be good. And I'm afraid as I'm doing it, like, damn, this is Shaq. I can't believe I'm doing this to Shaq. And I went down. I went to grab him. And instead of my hand, see how my hand can wrap around my shoulder? It was like I hit cement. I just went, boom, he went up and he dunked it. So as soon as he went up and dunked it, I'm thinking, oh my God, he's going to kick my ass. Like, I don't know, this is like the worst position I could be in. And I almost would rather him have kicked my ass for the fact that he didn't even recognize that I was there. It was way more cursed from my ego. Like, I was thinking to myself, like, oh shit, I'm going to get my ass kicked by Shaq in front of everybody. And he just walked to the free throw line. Like, I felt so insignificant. I almost quit the NBA at that point. I was just like, no, I'm probably not an NBA player. He doesn't remember that. He don't remember you even hitting him. No. You're right. If I gave this guy everything I had and he went up and dunked it like I wasn't even there. There's a lot of stories about your generosity. I don't think a lot of people know. Some of them may do. But you've given players money to buy suits. Most rookies, when they come in, they go crazy, including me. I went crazy. It's 12 guys on the team, including Mark. 11 guys are doing what guys with money do. Sure. And it's one guy that's not. So when you got 11 guys and you want everybody to be collective, everybody da-da-da-da-da-da. I was going to, nah, Mark ain't doing that. Mark's not doing that at all. Stay away from them. Don't invite them out. Don't be bringing certain people around them. Don't do that. Because you told me, you said, Shaq, I don't do that. So I don't do that. I don't talk to women. I'm waiting till I get married. And it was awesome to hear. Because I've never heard that before. And I said, OK, so it was my job to protect them. I don't get enough of that. You gave him money to give a down payment on a new car? I did. Because my dog was the purest NBA guy I've ever met. He really was. He came into the locker room one day. And he said, who in the world is driving that Toyota Astro van? And I raised my hand and said, Shaq, it's me. He said, you are not rolling into the Staples Center driving that beat up Toyota minivan. OK. So it took me car shopping. We're all in Mercedes, Ferrari, Lexus, and Lamborghinis, and Mark is in, I'm like, Mark. He offered to buy you a car? He offered to put a down payment on the car. What was the down payment? That could be like $1. It's like $5,000. I said, Shaq, I'm getting paid now. But he did give me a great deal. And then he took me a. Wait, wait, wait. So you and Shaq roll up to the car dealership. And he's like, I'm going to put a $5,000 down payment on this car. We get to the car dealership. He walks up to the first guy. And he says, take me straight to the manager. Yeah, we get in there. And he says, Mr. Manager, this is Mad Dog. I'm going to buy him a car today. Of course. That's a very Shaq thing to do. So I took him to the dealership. I said, hey, this is Mark. I saw you had a little thing in the paper, was $300 a month. That's the deal we want. Don't try to over talk us. This is Mark. That's what we want. Get him a truck. So, you know, because everybody has a truck. So I said, we're going to get him a Suburban or a towel. Because I just wanted to make him be part of the team, but not really. Yeah. So what'd you get? It was a blue Chevy Tahoe. A Chevy Tahoe? Yeah. Not so flashy. Not so flashy. But it was great. It was a great car. And Shaq approved. Shaq approved. OK. And he paid $5,000. He offered to. I insisted no. But then after that, he took me to the big and tall store. He shelled out $7,000. The NBA play. No, Shaq, I want to say, I'm going to do that. But I'm going to introduce you to some people where you do that. Like, the suit costs $1,000, but we're not going to pay $1,000. When I walk in, they don't give us half off. So I got introduced to the people. This is Mark. Dress them up. Boom, boom, boom. What? On a different pair of jeans for every day of the week. OK. So you're like a Monday pair? OK. And then he took me Rolex shopping. And he bought a new Rolex for every single guy on the team. Yeah. I want to rock right now. I'm Shaq Dees and I care to get down. Yes, I'm internationally low. And I'm known to rock a microphone because I get stupid. Me, they call these things. If you could have Chuck or Shaq as your teammate. Who are you taking? Shaq. OK. But I was a little too quick there. I mean, you could have given Charles a little love there. I love Charles, but Charles is not commanding a triple team. Double team, not triple team. Shaq, you had almost quadruple team. I get the ball. Like big man, hold him up right there. Boom. Look at now. Look at your right arm as you spin into him. Go ahead. No. This is throwing. You said throwing. I'm not. I'm already here. Like boom, boom, got the ball. Like I'm going to shoot. No, lean on me. No, lean down. So lean and spin. Boom. Just because I hit him in the head, don't mean I'm throwing the ball. OK. This is going to rain. This is going to rain. This is intensive throwing the ball. I never did that. The exact effectiveness is where he catches the ball. The quick spin move, he gets deep in the lane. Mark Jackson, a little slow getting down there. And then he just punishes him with that elbow. Reggie's not buying any of this. You lean on me. Spin, boom, got you, bam. OK, come on, Reg. That very move cost me a championship because he is, was, and is, the most dominant player, big man of our generation. We didn't see wilt play. Shaq, the most dominant ever, man. If you can't hold, if you can't dislodge, if you can't push him in the back, there's no way you're stopping him when he's five, seven, 10 feet away from the basket. He was just too strong and too gifted and great footwork as well. Shaq is the most dominant. Hold on, hold on. Rick Smith is seven-four. If he play like a big man, I can't bow him in his face. You're seven-one. That's three inches. Now, come on, you're acting like it's like that. Between you two and like that. He's big head, he up there. That's even more. I never did that. He had a bigger target. He had a bigger target. Come on. And after you hit him once, it was done. Let me explain something to you. When you talk about how big these guys are, that's very deceptive. The reason you are hitting them in the head is, first of all, you are so physically imposing, they just can't stand up. Yeah. So to get their center of gravity, they have to sit at the lower center of gravity. And that gets you hitting the head. That's not right. That's not right. Learn from you, when they go like that, when they bend down, put all their weight, all you got to do is spin. So when you spin, they're all balanced and boom. I touch them with it a little bit. But you never throw it that way. Checking them and being undersized and checking them, I didn't really get him throwing that bow. But the problem was, we wanted him to go over this shoulder, because you knew he was going to make the jump hook. But you never throw a bow. Oh, I've seen it a million times. I've got a lot of time. There's a guard trying to come down and double. You threw it. So Reggie, you buying Shack's demonstration over here? Did I intentionally throw a bow? Intentionally, you want me to answer your question? Yes. Yes, because you use it. Can I finish? No, can I? You use it to your advantage, because you are the most physically intimidating person in our league for 15 years. The bow had nothing to do with it, that's how you played me. So whoever you hit got hit once, they felt it, and they never came back. That means every time you are coming, every time you're coming now, they're not there. That's an easier shot. You hit them one time, they're going to feel it. Look, I will say this. As many times as we all, because we've all come down and doubled you or had to play you at some point in time, got hit, I'm surprised you didn't kill all of us. No, I'm serious. What is something that one of them players that you got off of them, or two of them that you got from them, that you, like, this stuck with me longer than any other thing that stuck with me with any other player? Probably the three individual players would be Shack, Zo and LeBron. It was probably the three I took the most from Shack. I took the way that he was, like, I was so quiet. I was introvert, like, I didn't talk much, I didn't let my personality show. Shack kind of opened me up, you know what I'm saying? When he gave me the nickname Flash, and you know what I'm saying? Like, I bought into the Flash character, and like, he started opening me up, so I started being more, like, you know, I started speaking for myself. I started saying what I wanted, you know what I'm saying? Like, I started being a little, I had a little more pizzazz to myself. Yeah, so he kind of brought that side out of me. Keel O'Neal, we watched Kazam. That's not a shot, Shack. That's not a shot, Shack. That's not a shot. But we were watching Blue Chips, like you said, and we grew up seeing them players, and your first championship to go through that, and win a championship with them players, what did that mean to you? That was unreal, bro. You know what I mean? First of all, to be, you know, when Coach, when Riles made that move to bring everybody in. Like, first, man, my first year, like, I was just having fun. And we was just having fun. We went from being a terrible team to a good team at some point, and I just enjoyed being an NBA, making some noise, and then, trade happened, Shack come to Miami, everything changes. Yeah. The major headline around the league tonight, Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat have agreed to a trade that will send Keel O'Neal one of the greatest big men of all time, to sunny South Florida. First of my reaction, well, I was a little saddened first because I knew I was losing my buddies and Lamar and Koran and Brian. But at the, on the other end, I was very excited. I mean, I was playing with one of the greatest players ever to play the game. Hey, Dwayne, he was pretty courteous. No sooner than he, when he got there, he showed up and said, hey, let's just be straight about this. This is not my team. This is the young fellas team. This is Dwayne Wade's team. When I got there with D-Wade, you know, I was like, you know what? I'm older. I'm tired. It's your team, D-Wade. First thing I do, D-Wade, we went to a restaurant and I told him all the stuff that happened bad with me and Kobe. So as soon as we got there the first day, I said, look, man, you heard this, you heard that. Me and you ain't gonna have no problem. You know, man, take as many shots as you want. Mm-hmm. I need to get 28, 10 to make everybody feel good, make myself feel good and stuff, but just, and we never have problems. And I said, I'm telling you this, D-Wade, because this could never happen between us. I said, tomorrow when I go to the press conference, it's your team. I'm gonna follow you. I'm gonna be your consultant. I'm gonna be your costlier. You're the godfather. I'm the top lawyer. We work together. Nah, it's not me. It's not my team. It's not just Shaq's team. It's our team. To be able to go from Nat to, like, then and next to you, it was like, hey, Shaq here. It's time to win a championship. I'm like, wait, wait, what? Right now? I just got here. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, instantly. You know how I go. Yeah. You just gotta pull it up in the big truck and see what he's saying. You both saying you're gonna bring a championship to Miami? Remember this, I'm gonna bring a championship to Miami, I promise. I gotta put some work in it. I gotta go. I have a question. Do you think at your, because of your strength and size, it also penalize you with the rest when you got fouled? Of course, all the time. I mean, I was always upset that I couldn't talk to the referees like sleepy Barkley over there and like Reggie Miller. They used to say something about that. If I say it, I'm out for a month. So, you know, it kind of penalized me, but, you know, somebody made an interesting point. They're not gonna take care of one guy and penalize everybody else. Think about that, you know, because I was the only one of my kind playing at the time. So they're not gonna take care of me and get everybody else upset. So they take care of everybody else and then I would just have to deal with it. Watching frustrated players swarm around all 325 pounds of a determined shack spinning toward the basket was like watching those tiny old biplanes trying to take down King Kong. No player ever had to endure more physical abuse. Yet not only did he endure it, he excelled in the face of it. I never cried, never complained, I just 28, 15. It was said often, it said time and time again, the most difficult guy to referee in basketball. Yeah, no question. I think things could have gotten a lot worse if he hadn't been composed and able to deal with all of it. To me, this is the mark of a great player. When they start changing rules because of what you do, then you're a great player. So when you become a guy who that leagues makes different rules for, that's when you know you arrived. Early in that season, coming off the floor in the second or third game, I met him out on the court and said, what was the greatest thing Will Chamberlain did in his career? And he said he averaged 50 points a game and 40 rebounds a game. I said, no, that's not it. He averaged over 48 minutes a game. Do you think you can do that? He said, if Will Chamberlain did it, I can do it. So Shaq played 48 minutes a game. For how long, Shaq? John Sally came in my office about two weeks later and said, do you think you can start limiting Shaq's minutes? But he got in shape and he won the MVP and he was great that year, great year for him. 60 some points against the Clippers. That night, it was my birthday and we had a party. So usually I go home. Before or after the game? No, after the game. I was like, we had a party. In the game? Party, so usually I go home, eat lunch, take a nap, get ready for the game, but we play it against the great Keith Kloss and L.A. Clippers, so I'm taking the night off. I got to get ready for the party. So on this day, I broke all my rituals. My ritual consisted of, I have to shoot around, go home, eat two turkey club sandwiches with extra mayo and a diet coke. They got it three to four hours. No, sir, sir. He's not lying, he's not lying, he's not lying. I'm just looking at Shaq's diet coke, taking that, go play, go dominate. And you know, Clippers, we always manhandle and beat them, so that day I said, you know what, since I got a party tonight, I'm gonna let Rick Fox and Kobe and those guys take over. I ain't gonna do nothing, so. The whole day I'm setting up the party, I'm calling A, make sure the drinks are there. I'm taking the night off, I got to get ready for the party. I got the Bentley, I got my suit, so I'ma go, you know. Because also what I was doing in that game is I was gonna file shave. File shave, we're gonna get him, so. Have you know what file shave is? No. What's that? File shave is when you get in the game, you get two quick files so you can sit down. I wasn't gonna file shave, I wasn't gonna even play this game. I was gonna get three, four quick files, I wasn't gonna do nothing. I was gonna be in some good place. What a great game plan to have. Yeah. With the turkey sandwiches. I get to the game and I'm dead tired. I'm not gonna do nothing, so. Wait, wait, hold on. The party's the night before, the night after. No, no. After the game. After the game. But why are you tired? Because I didn't take a nap. And I'm out all day, I'm out, you know, calling people, going to the mall, getting the jewelry. I got to get the ice ready, I got to get the derbies, I'm getting the suits made, I got to get the car wash, I got to get the rims cleaned up. So I go home about four, I don't even get to take a nap. I get back on the highway because I live the highway from Staples at five. So I get to the game and I'm like, yes. So, you know, the game start. We get out there and they're killing us. Everybody looking at me. And the Clippers are killing us, right? Clippers are killing us and then Phil, he starts yelling at me. And all the guys start looking at me, so you know I'm like, all right, give me the ball. So now I got the play, I didn't get my nap, I'm getting tired, so I'm just scoring. So I look over to the bench and I see one of my idols. Karim Abdul Jabbar was, I guess he was a special assistant coach. Telling Keith Claus how to stop me. I see Karim saying, you gotta do this, you gotta do that. Now I'm pissed. Oh, Karim, like, oh, that's all. I'm like, give me the ball. So I'm scoring, I'm scoring. So I got the ball one time and I shot like a little sky hook. You know, just to pay homage to him. And he did me like this, Ernie. He put his head down. So now I'm super pissed. Phil's calling other players. I'm like, we're not running that right now. Turn and find. Get it to me every time. He's like, why is it not? Get it to me every time. I'm gonna make Karim look at me. And Karim never looked at me. And you know, it seemed to me like, it seemed to me like he was talking to the guys. I'm like, oh, don't let him do that. You gotta play him like this, you gotta play him. So I'm like, oh, okay, you gonna teach him how to stop me, watch this. So I'm starting to go to work. I'm getting the ball and I'm looking. I'm like, oh, you got Pete Chilcutt on there. You're not going double. Barbecue, chicken alert, Ernie, I'm going. So they had Pete Chilcutt sticking me. They had Anthony Avins sticking me. Then they tried to hack a shack thing. And I had to get my elbow in like my name was Dennis Scott right there. So you know, as players, like, you know, you get 30, right? And you're like, man, I can get 40. So I got 40 right. I was like, man, I can get 50. So now that I got 50 guys are like, go get 60, go get 60. He just put his hand, he never looked at me. You know, I get 61, I'm throwing lobs. And I'm actually kind of upset at Phil because I think we had like five minutes left. I think I could have went for 70 or possibly 80. But again, you know, Phil took me out. And he took me out. I think he did that because he didn't want me to score more than Mike. That's what I think. That's what I'm saying, that's what I'm saying. 61 points, 61 points, 23 rebounds against Keith Kloss. Video game. The great. I still went to the party. And then there was a hell of a party already. Almost there in the game. Where was it? The party was there. It was at an aquarium. It was nice. And I pulled up in that white convertible Rolls-Royce arm. What was the music playing? What music playing? Bound out. Bound out. How'd it go back in 2000? Bound out. Oh, yeah. It was me and Uncle Jerome. Jerome in the house. Great, great, great, great. Yeah, you had a lot of fun. Yeah, what was your first impression of Shaquille O'Neal? Well, it's almost like a rhino on there, on the court to play against. You know, a couple of years ago, I went to Africa to see a real rhino. But it's not much of a difference. And I want to ask about your first impression of Shaquille on the court. It's scary. This is the dude, though. You know what I mean? Even though you got that mentality, this is that one that you really admire and respect as dominant on both ends of the court. And I used to brag to my friends a lot and say, you know, like, after we played in Lakers, you know, I get to the career of me like, yo, you seen I laid Shaq, didn't you? You know what I mean? Like, you seen Shaq try to get that, and I put that thing, I hop off the glass on him. You know what I mean? And that gave me added confidence to myself to whereas I felt like if I could score over Shaq, I could score over anybody. You know what I mean? Because I wanted to be Lil Shaq on the basketball court. Could you take down Shaq now? Come on, man. You don't see the guy fight? Lakers are trying to get out and break now, but it's not efficient, necessarily, to take down Shaq up first. A real fighter throws a first punch. I'm not going to walk up to you and let y'all slug me in my jaw first. I got to get y'all first. Oh, real fighter does what? 1999. This kid is going to fight a real fighter. Chop. All I wanted to do was wait. We said, what did you say? The winning guy's way up. The guy on the top is the winner. No, bro. I'm on top. Shaq? No. You ever see him win a fight? Shaq can't fight a lick. I hit him in that big old gut. Because I can't reach his big old head. So I hit him in the gut. And that gut, it'll bring him down. And then when he come down, I clock him. This would happen. You can slow down if you want to. I wanted to show the left to my man. So when he went for the left, I wanted to hit him with the right. But somebody grabbed me. But when he got me down on the ground, he didn't do nothing. So I knew we wasn't even really safe. But check this out, after that fight, we both got in trouble. I love this angle on me and Shaq. I love this angle. See the, see the left. You know it, see? And number five, grab my arms. Hold me. Get him, get him. Cutino hit him. Look at this. See the left. See? Oh. See how I just showed him. See? See? See? See? Hey, that was just a little ugly. You know, some people like jump all the way. I just like slub them. Just slub them. Let's do it in slow-mo. How was it? Oh! You know what's funny about that? What? A lot of people don't know that. Charles' mother and my mother were best friends. Oh, yeah. So the day me and Charles got into an altercation, the phone rings. There was an Alabama number. And his mom, don't you put your hands on my baby. You need to stop fussing at each other and get him grip and behave. And my mom called, what y'all doing out there fighting? But you know, you play long. I played 19 years. You come across a lot of characters. But you know, for me, hands down, it was Shaquille O'Neal. I mean, most of the stories I can't repeat most of the stories. But I mean, every day, I think he literally would come to practice every day thinking of how can I make everybody laugh? And did it actually make you laugh, or did it just make you shake your head? A little bit of both. A little bit of both. But I mean, Shaq, Shaq, Shaq, I remember one time we getting ready to play a big game against Dallas. And matter of fact, I think it was a TNT game. We were fighting for playoff position. And after the pre-game meeting, I go in the bathroom, I come out, and Gordon Gearchek is laid out on the floor. And the trainers are trying to wake him up. Shaq, Shaq choked him out. Like, 18 minutes on the clock, we get ready to go out to play. And Shaq, like, put him in the sleeper hole, because he was talking too much. And he was talking trash to Shaq, so Shaq. That's one funny G.H.I.T. He's not here to defend himself, Shaq. But if it was like, G.H.I.T., I told him I'm messing with you. I told him. Hardest person I've had to guard was Shaq. Hardest player I've ever got without thinking is Shaq. Shaq U'Neal. Shaq U'Neal. Because he's beast. He was so big and strong. In his prime, he was the hardest player to guard, period. He was the most dominant center in the world, big fan. Luckily, I didn't have to guard him very much. But the very few times that I did, it was painful. He had me about 200 pounds, and I had not a chance in life of stopping him. Scariest player I've ever had is I believe most definitely Shaq U'Neal. Shaq. Uh-oh, let me run for cover. Shaq, by far. Shaq U'Neal. Definitely Shaq U'Neal. Shaq, look out. He rocked the whole gym. Seven foot, 300 plus pounds, muscle. He's an absolute monster. Dominance is out of this world. Freak taking a sledgehammer. You know, he was too strong. He was too big for everyone. He was dunking every play. Shaq, oh, what a power move by the big guy. You joined that charge of being a hospital for a month. Woo. Shaq was scary. Yes, he was. I hear all the young guys talking about Shaq, right? And I remember Alvin was a teammate of mine. Yeah. And in Detroit, and so we're playing Orlando, and Shaq hauls off, and he hits Alvin Robertson, and he hit him, and Alvin did it like this. I remember that. All it shots landed. Matt Cooke is now charging out. And he was like, he was like that. And I said, and I grabbed Shaq, and I go, oh, you hit the wrong guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You hit the wrong guy. Yeah, okay. Shaq swung first. And that was the complete collection of Shaquille O'Neal's greatest stories. If you did enjoy this video, please help me out by hitting that like button, subscribing if you are new, and hit that notification button so you never miss an episode in the series. Comment down below which player you would like to see next, and see you next time.