“Daddy Will Bite You”: Shaquille O’Neal Recalls Warning His Kids About His 12-3 Gameday Routine

Being an NBA superstar requires one to juggle their personal life while maintaining a rigorous routine. Especially if you’re someone like Shaquille O’Neal, who competed to win the biggest honors in the game. The father of six recently touched on the practices he followed during his playing days to balance his family life and pre-game routine.

O’Neal was on ‘Entrepreneur’, discussing his booming ‘Big Chicken’ business when he made a segue to discuss the host’s children. “Can I say something about your beautiful family?” the four-time NBA champion began.

“Your kids remind me of my kids. And the fact that when daddy’s working, they know how to just chill and be quiet. You got two young babies over there not making any noise and my kids were like that. On game day, they know from 12-3, play the game that if you wake daddy up, daddy will bite you,” Shaquille O’Neal recalled.

Shaq’s youngest, Me’Arah O’Neal, is now 17 and playing for the Florida Gators. So one can understand why Diesel found himself reminiscing, as most of his kids have flown the coop.

Twenty years during his playing days, O’Neal needed his beauty sleep, and even if it meant just flashing his teeth to his children, Shaq got those hours of rest. This was necessary because of O’Neal’s sleeping pattern.

He has revealed multiple times in the past that he’s a late sleeper, rarely hitting the hay before 12 at night. But with practices and training in the morning, this habit could have led to a groggy Shaq underperforming on the hardwood. Instead, he found a unique rhythm that worked for him.

“That was my thing, stay out all night, right? Like just 4:00. Get up at 10:00. Go to shootaround, mess around, come back. Two turkey clubs, fries and a pineapple soda, and then I’ll sleep the four hours,” Big Diesel explained to Fox News. “That’s what I need before the game. Like if I get that three hours before the game, no matter what I did the night before, I’m killing somebody,” he concluded.

Shaq rarely played a game where he was phoning it in. Particularly during his time in Los Angeles, where most of his children were born, O’Neal didn’t let the pressures of home life detract from his responsibility to the team and fan base.