Shaquille O’Neal is a proud alumnus of Lousiana State University and loves to speak about his experiences and shenanigans from his time there. As a center for the LSU Tigers basketball team, Shaq was playing under the tutelage of coach Dale Brown and had led his team to greater success than the LSU’s football team. However, Shaq was never content with the fact that LSU was referred to as a football school despite the basketball team being more successful around the campus.
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Interestingly, the football and basketball team players were interested in hanging around with the same women from the university, further aggravating their conflict. Shaq took a liking for a girl named Tiffany Broussard, who was well-known in the sporting circle and was reportedly involved with a football player, Anthony Marshall. With gushing confidence, Shaq proclaimed basketball as the ‘king of the campus’ to the girl, dismissing the football team’s accomplishments.
When word spread of Shaq getting along with the girl, the 6’3″ football player Anthony Marshall was not having it. In fact, Marshall rounded up Shaq, alongside other football players, in his room. While arguing about Tiffany, Shaq punched Marshall in the heat of the moment and ran toward the basketball team’s living quarters. Shaq was scared and locked himself inside his room while a group of four to five football players banged on his door, urging him to come out.
As soon as the players barged inside Shaq’s room, everyone engaged in a brawl with the 7’1″ center, with Shaq particularly putting Anthony Marshall in a headlock. The brawl stopped only after an intervention from the campus police, alongside the football and basketball coaches. Coach Dale Brown had to rush to the scene and grab Shaq out.
Describing this moment in his autobiography Shaq Uncut, the Diesel wrote: “There are TV cameras rolling, and the football players are getting arrested, and it’s a big mess. For my role in everything, I was “detained” by the police. Anthony and I had to shake hands. Everyone was trying to downplay the football versus basketball thing, but it was real. There was a lot of tension between the two teams.”
Surely, Shaq must be fondly looking back at those days, given he established himself as a star both at LSU and in the NBA. Shaq is part of the LSU Hall of Fame and has a 900-pound bronze statue built in front of the LSU Basketball Practice. Honoring the great center’s incredible college career, the Tigers retired Shaq’s #33 jersey in 2000.
Shaquille O’Neal once let his emotions take over during a college basketball practice
Shaq might be all fun and games around his teammates when he is in his best mood. However, if someone had to get onto the nerves of the 7’1″ center, they would never expect the wrath he would unleash upon them. This is exactly what happened when Shaq was extremely infuriated by his teammate Stanley Roberts right after his freshman year.
Stanley Roberts can be described as a gifted and skillful player while also being a seven-footer like Shaq. However, despite missing classes and breaking curfews often, he rarely attended practice and only gave half-hearted efforts during sessions. However, Roberts’ perception of Shaq would soon change as he would face the Big Aristotle for a pickup game in the next practice.
During that time, a former LSU player, Ricky Blanton, visited the Tigers and fueled Shaq’s confidence by asking him to go for Roberts. As the matchup became a bit too physical, Shaq was gearing up with the intention of destroying Roberts on the court before his aggressive nature took the best of him.
As mentioned in his autobiography, Shaq looked around to find anything suitable as a weapon and then chased Roberts with a metal trash can. After the incident cooled, Roberts told the LSU captain Wayne Sims, “Shaq is crazy. And you wonder why I don’t show up for pickup.”
Shaq always had a competitive mindset for playing basketball, making him want to face the best of his talents. Shaq’s approach fueled his growth a year after this incident, helping him become the AP Player of the Year and leading the NCAA in rebounding. Of course, after joining the NBA, Shaq took the modern game by storm and cemented his place in the annals of the league’s history.
