A college degree carries weight wherever you go. To have the follow-through and drive to finish anything that takes multiple years deserves praise and attention. For those who manage to survive that process, as dramatic as it may sound, and then turn around and pursue another degree, well, that’s a different type of devotion. Now, imagine doing that process five times over, and you would have the lived experience of one Shaquille O’Neal.
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In 2000, Shaq completed the four-year bachelor’s degree he began at LSU in 1989. He had initially left school to enter the 1992 NBA Draft, where he went first overall. Over the years, he has also claimed an MBA from the online University of Phoenix and studied public communications at Syracuse in preparation for a career in sportscasting. Finally, in 2012, he earned a Ph.D. in education from Barry University.
O’Neal has frequently flexed his educational acumen when people question his intelligence, but he’s not done learning yet. With the completion of his fifth degree, he hopes to help players whose situation he understands intimately.
On an episode of the “TODAY” show, Shaq explained how difficult it is to deal with the struggles of being a professional athlete. As such, he laid out his new goal: a degree in sports psychology and a practice run by therapists who have been where their patients have been.
“I’m someone who, if I don’t believe it, I find it difficult,” started Shaq, “so, no disrespect to sports psychologists, but if you haven’t been in certain situations, how can you help me out?” The question of “how can you help me if you don’t know me?” is a sentiment shared by many people who are resistant to therapy.
Still, while most therapists try to bridge this gap by using general experiences as a foundation for advice, Shaq would have the ultimate one-up of “I have actually been there.”
“I went to a sports psychologist one time,” Shaq remembered, “because we all know I’m a terrible free throw shooter and his recommendations were, ‘Breathe.’ In Sacramento, where there’s cowbells and screaming, ‘breathe’ is not gonna work … In my weird mind, I want to be a sports psychologist … in sports situations, they know I’ve been there and done that.”
Shaq is returning to LSU to pursue this degree and could be setting a new standard. Therapy has become less stigmatized in recent years, especially for athletes. O’Neal’s ability to connect with others could do phenomenal things for many people who struggle to find true peers in their conversations of stress and pressure.
