14-Year-Old Shaquille O’Neal Lifted a ‘Volkswagen Bug’ to Save His Friend’s Life

Shaquille O’Neal has possessed superhuman strength since he was just a kid. The big fella used it to dominate the basketball floor and break backboards. But once his strength helped him save a friend’s life.

During an interview with Muscle & Fitness, Shaq shared an incident from his adolescence when his friend met with an accident and Shaq had to show up with his superhuman strength. 

The interviewer had asked him about the greatest strength feat of his life. Shaq recalled when he was 14 years old, his buddy got hit by a ‘Volkswagen Bug’ and one of his legs got partially stuck underneath the car.

Shaq went through an adrenaline rush and lifted the car with his bare hands, creating an opening for his friend to get his leg out. Shaq recounted,

“When I was about 14 years old, one of my friends got hit by a car. He was under it a little bit. It was a small car—like a Volkswagen Bug—but I lifted it up just enough for him to get his leg out.”

These heroics by a 14-year-old Shaq must have required unbelievable strength. A Volkswagen Bug, better known as ‘Volkswagen Beetle’, has a kerb weight between 1600 lbs and 2100 lbs. One can imagine how powerful the NBA version of O’Neal must have been if he had the strength to lift a car at 14.

However, O’Neal kept a bodyguard despite his superhuman strength.

Shaq needed a bodyguard for wholly different reasons

Usually, one needs a bodyguard as a shield from dangerous people. However, in O’Neal’s case, he needed someone who could rein his temper.

In his 2022 documentary, Shaq revealed that only his bodyguard Jerome Crawford could calm him down when he was angry. O’Neal disclosed that even his mother Lucille O’Neal was unable to do anything when he got angry. He said,

“There’s only one guy who can help calm me down, that’s Uncle Jerome. He knows me, he helped raise me. He understands me. He’s the only one that when I get to 10, nobody else in America, my mama can’t even bring me to 0.”

As someone who played in the high-pressure market of LA, O’Neal needed Crawford both on and off the floor. There were many instances when Crawford stopped Shaq from going on an outburst, which could have led to his suspensions.