Shaquille O’Neal has a great bond with his mother Lucille O’Neal and stepfather Sgt. Phillip Harrison. He has won four NBA championships with two teams and is a 15-time All-Star player. Shaq has always said that his stepfather’s strict discipline and military upbringing made him the champion he is today. O’Neal has an estranged relationship with his biological father. However, for him, Phillip A. Harrison has played all roles worthy of a father. In his 1994 rap album Shaq Fu: The Return, Shaq voiced his feelings about his real father in the song “Biological Didn’t Bother.”
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Furthermore, when Shaq met his biological father for the first time in 2016, he did not seem to have much connection with him. Instead, he still seemed to have maintained a strong bond with his stepfather. Phillip was the first to take Shaq to an NBA game to watch the Philadelphia 76ers play. This is where he fell in love with basketball while watching Dr. J, Julius Erving, do his magic on the court.
Shaquille O’Neal’s father ‘programmed’ him not to get excited after winning NBA championships
Shaquille O’Neal’s military upbringing, thanks to his strict and disciplined stepfather, has contributed to the making of a champion. Even though Shaq has won the NBA championship title four times, his stepfather always urged him to go for more. The 14-time All-Star player speaks about this in a podcast with the Hoopland. He says:
“I’m programmed not to get excited. My father won’t let me get excited, but you can get excited at the moment. But everytime you won a championship, I fear the call.”
In the above quote, Shaq talks about his father’s strict and rigid approach even when he won the best accolades in the NBA. This rigid and stringent approach has shaped Shaq’s tough guy personality that he has today. He further adds:
“(Shaq speaking about his father) ‘Hello?’ ‘Yes sir?’ ‘Bring your a** home, bring my trophy.’ Now I got a room to play in and bring my trophy. My dad sitting here. ‘Go get another one. Have fun this summer. Go get another one motherf***er'”
When Shaq asked his stepfather towards the end of his career about his stringent nature, his dad replied:
“I never want you to be complacent.”
Shaq’s career in the NBA was possible because of his dad’s ardent nature in training his son. His father had famously asked Shaq to listen to him, and that in return, he would help Shaq get into the NBA.
Shaq had gifted his step-father a Mercedes-Benz worth $150k
Shaq shared a special bond with his father, evident from how he spent his $ 1 million buying three Mercedes cars in one single day. When Shaq drove home with his new $150k black-on-black Mercedes, his dad joked, “That’s nice. Where’s mine?”
Shaq might have taken the joke literally. He took his father to the same dealership and bought him an identical car for the same price. Again, realizing he could not leave his mother out of this equation, he bought a slightly smaller Mercedes for her.
