Shaquille O’Neal claims to have believed he had died and gone to heaven after watching Julius Erving play in the NBA.
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Shaquille O’Neal was gifted with genes that most would assume would cultivate a basketball prodigy. His biological mother and father were both 6’1 and 6’0, respectively, and had dabbled in the sporting realm in their youth. While growing up, Shaq was raised with the utmost discipline due to him being fathered by Army sergeant, Philip Harrison.
By the time Shaq was in his early teenage years, he had already crossed well above 6 feet, towering over the rest of his middle/ high school classmates. Prior to him indulging in high school basketball however, ‘The Big Aristotle’ had little to no interest in the game. That is of course, before Harrison took his stepson to an NBA game.
Shaquille O’Neal and his stepdad attended a Philadelphia 76ers game during the former’s youth and the two would get to witness brilliance from none other than Julius Erving, ‘The Doctor’. Watching Dr. J perform at the highest level possible along with his flair led Shaq to decide one thing for himself: he wanted to be an NBA player.
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Shaquille O’Neal on how he felt watching Julius Erving the first time.
Shaquille O’Neal has said on several occasions that he credits Julius Erving for being the man who convinced him to pursue a life in basketball. Everything from seeing his game up close to watching him in his favorite movie, ‘The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh’, O’Neal was obsessed with the former ABA player.
While at an event in 2016, the 4x champ opened up about the time he actually got to meet his idol in person, claiming the first time it happened was at his dorm room in LSU.
“One of my dreams was to meet D.J. True story, he woke me up in my college dorm one day. Seriously. He was going to speak either in Baton Rouge or LSU and I was sleeping and woke up and I saw this good-looking brother with his hand on my chest.”
“I was like, ‘God? God is a black man?’ And then I said, ‘Dr.J?’ After I said that, I thought I was dead. I said, ‘Damn, I’m dying in college? Can you believe this?’ And it was Dr. J. we talked and we had a good conversation.”
Seems as though only Julius Erving and Michael Jordan have the honor of being classified as Black Jesus/ God.
