“How Am I Gonna Take Care Of This Man-Child?”: Shaquille O’Neal’s Mother, Lucille O’Neal, On Her Struggles With Raising Shaq

Shaquille O’Neal didn’t grow up in conditions that people would describe as apt for an athlete to eventually become one of the greatest NBA players the league had seen in half a century. Lucille O’Neal, his mother, shouldered a lot of the burden of raising him given that his biological father, Joseph Toney, wasn’t in the picture. 

Due to Toney’s drug addiction and subsequent prison sentence, he would relinquish his role as acting parent to Shaq’s eventual stepfather, Phillip Harrison. It would be Harrison who took Shaq to a Sixers game that made him realize he wanted to be a player in the NBA (Julius Erving was his favorite player). 

While O’Neal was working on his game with his father, his mother, Lucille, was providing as much love and support as she could. There was a time in her life between Toney’s exit from their life and Harrison’s entry where she had to tough it out as a single mother and raise Shaq and his siblings on her own.

Also read: Shaquille O’Neal Joined Kobe Bryant and Lakers After Orlando Media Threw Baseless Allegations on Ex-Wife Arnetta Yardbourgh

Lucille O’Neal on raising Shaq by herself for a while 

Dell and Sonya Curry, prior to their divorce, started a podcast called ‘Raising Fame’ where they brought on family members of athletes and asked them what it was like raising a man or woman who went on to become as big as they did. 

Lucille O’Neal was featured in one of these episodes and she talked about how she was forced into getting a job in a pursuit to provide her children with what they needed to grow. She would stay at her grandmother’s house while Shaq.

Lucille O’Neal on raising @SHAQ as a single mother through the ups and downs. #RaisingFame #WeAreFamily #shaq @NBAonTNT 🎙LISTEN: https://t.co/UuvfQ8A04U pic.twitter.com/ODbsrWSdql

— Raising Fame with the Currys (@raising_fame) February 20, 2020

Eventually, Shaq would go on to become of the best players in the nation at the high school level while playing varsity for Cole High School in Texas. Him being drafted number 1 overall to the Orlando Magic was a product of all the hard work that him along with his parents put into him reaching that stage in his life. 

Shaquille O’Neal and his mother had a ritual before every game 

Shaquille O’Neal once said that he believes what makes a man is the ability to keep a promise you make to your mother. He clearly values his mother a lot and rightfully so. The two are extremely close and they even share an adorable pre-game ritual together. 

Back when O’Neal was dominating the league, his mother would hand him chewing gum and give him a good luck kiss on the cheek prior to every single game. It seems to have worked with the way ‘The Big Aristotle’s’ career panned out.

Also read: While Thirsting Over 7’1 Shaquille O’Neal, TV Host Doxxed Nischelle Turner’s Romance With The Lakers Legend