During an AAU game, Shaquille O’Neal punched a young athlete in the face. This jarring incident shocked everyone around Shaq whose immense 6’11’’ physique already drew a lot of attention. The consequences of the event frightened O’Neal because he was still living with his parents. The Center knew he went overboard, however, things did work out in his favor in the end.
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The incident was triggered when a young hooper kept fouling Shaquille O’Neal despite repeated warnings. Finally, Shaqfu let a punch fly and it connected so hard that the hooper’s face got severely injured. Upon reviewing the situation, the AAU organizers decided to eject O’Neal who had upset a lot of viewers.
In his 2011 book Shaq Uncut: My Story, Shaquille O’Neal related this incident in detail.
“We were playing a team from the state of Washington, and this guy kept fouling me really hard. I told him he shouldn’t do that again but he did, so I turned around and I punched him in the face. The AAU people didn’t like that so much, so they kicked me out. Permanently. I messed up that kid pretty bad, so they sent me home,” revealed Robert G. Cole High School alum.
After being thrown out of the game, O’Neal was afraid of his stepfather Phillip Harrison, who was an Army Sergeant. Had he learned about his violent act, the punishment would have been harsh. However, the 3x Finals MVP hid this secret all his life. Shaq added,
“Luckily for me, my father wasn’t there. He was in training for a couple of months, so he was out of town for a while and he never found out about it—until now. Sorry, Sarge”
While he dodged him after the punching incident, his stepfather had whooped him many times. The Lakers legend had been a wayward teenager and was used to getting in trouble.
Shaquille O’Neal wreaked a lot of havoc
On his The Big Podcast with Adam Lefkoe, the 4x NBA champion revealed that he and his friend had stolen M&M’s from a store but somehow avoided the police. However, when they returned home, Shaq’s stepfather Harrison knew that they were hiding something. Upon seeing them, the Army Sergeant reacted,
“What the hell you all been doing? Empty your pockets. Where the f**k you’ll get some M&Ms from?’’ after which Shaq got what he termed as an “a** whooping“.
While he did receive a harsh punishment, the 2000 MVP avoided a terrible fate. If he had been caught by authorities it would have led to worse repercussions. But now that he has attained a multi-millionaire status, there are a lot of eyes on him.
In December 2022, he couldn’t avoid the scanner of authorities when he was named in a class-action lawsuit for investing in the bankrupt crypto-dealer FTX. Investigating agencies pinned down FTX founders Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang for creating a fraud platform that worked on “unauthorized transactions”. One of those transactions was traced back to the big fella’s account.
Despite multiple summonses against him, Shaquille O’Neal allegedly evaded the authorities. After a cat-and-mouse game for five months, they finally managed to serve the Inside the NBA analyst during a Miami Heat Playoff game in May.
Fittingly, it was in the Kaseya Center, formerly known as the FTX Arena, where the process server filmed him getting served. This time the authorities finally got a hold of him, however, his lawyers have avoided severe repercussions thus far. No more whooping though.
