After winning the SEC Player of the Year for the second year running in 1992, LSU superstar Shaquille O’Neal felt he had achieved all he could in college basketball. The 7’1″ giant was ready to forego the final year of his college career and declare for the 1992 NBA Draft. However, he was apprehensive about letting LSU head coach Dale Brown know he was leaving the team.
In O’Neal’s biography ‘Shaq Uncut,’ the Hall of Famer revealed having mixed feelings about leaving LSU. He wrote,
“I was excited about the NBA—and all the money that was coming with it—but I was also still thinking about LSU. I was kind of scared to tell Dale Brown I was leaving.”
O’Neal mustered the courage to inform Coach Brown about his decision and was shocked at his reaction. He revealed,
“One night I called him about eleven thirty. He said, ‘I already know what you’re calling about. You are right, you’ve got to go. They’re hammering you so hard out there in the college game you should leave before you get hurt and can’t play anymore.'”
O’Neal was so physically dominant in college that teams committed hard fouls against the big man to stop him from scoring. While he brushed off those fouls and continued to dogwalk his opponents, Coach Brown knew one hard foul could severely injure O’Neal and destroy his prospects of playing in the NBA. So, he advised him to leave college behind and head to the league.
O’Neal wrote that Coach Brown’s approval was critical in helping him decide to forego his senior year in college and declare for the draft. He also revealed how caring and selfless the LSU head coach, writing,
“I was so relieved. I really didn’t want to let Coach Brown down. The last thing he said was ‘Please be safe. Drive slowly. Go home and think about it. If you want me to come out there to Texas when you make your announcement, let me know and I will.'”
Coach Brown could’ve easily swayed O’Neal’s mind and convinced him to spend another year in college so he could help the program attract more talent, earn more money, and potentially compete for an NCAA National Championship. However, he was more concerned about the players’ future than his and his employer’s bottom line. In the end, he did the right thing and advised O’Neal to declare for the draft.
For this, Coach Brown deserves some serious praise and admiration.
Shaquille O’Neal had an incredible rookie season
As soon as Shaquille O’Neal declared for the 1992 NBA draft, it was a foregone conclusion that he would be the #1 pick. The Orlando Magic were granted the honor of picking the LSU superstar with the top pick in the draft.
O’Neal set the tone for things to come in his rookie season. He averaged 23.4 points, then the fourth-highest mark by a rookie in the NBA’s post-merger era, 13.9 rebounds, the most by a rookie post-merger, and 1.9 assists. He also averaged 3.5 blocks per game. Only Manute Bol averaged more blocks per game with five when O’Neal finished his rookie season. The Magic’s win total jumped from 21 in the 1991-92 season to 41 at the end of their rookie superstar’s first season with the franchise.
O’Neal won 96 of the 98 first-place votes in the Rookie of the Year race and won the award by a landslide margin. In his sophomore season in the NBA, the big man ascended into one of the best players in the game.
He averaged 29.3 points, which ranked second in the league behind San Antonio Spurs star David Robinson. O’Neal led the league in scoring until the final day when Robinson and the Spurs concocted a ruse to let the superstar do the bulk of the scoring. He scored 71 points, raised his scoring average to 29.8, and stole the scoring title away from O’Neal.
The Magic star’s average of 13.2 rebounds per game was bettered only by Dennis Rodman with 17.3, and his 231 blocks ranked fourth in the NBA. In only his second season, O’Neal was a force to be reckoned with, proving he made the right choice to forego his final year of college and join the NBA a year earlier.
