Shaquille O’Neal considers his stepfather, Phillip A. Harrison, his dad over his biological father for a reason. The retired Army Sergeant, who lived by his rules, introduced Shaq to basketball. Not only that, he was his first coach who taught him how to play. Even after he became a popular player in college and then transitioned into the NBA, Harrison maintained his involvement in his career. However, this heavy influence of Harrison over Shaq once almost led to a fight between him and the Lakers Head Coach at the time, Phil Jackson, according to Shaq Talks Back.
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The Sarge was the first to teach O’Neal to play like a big man. He also asked Shaq to stop doing finger-rolls and copying traits from his favorite NBA player Dr. J. It was his strict behavior and abusive nature toward Shaq that became the source of inspiration for the ferocity with which Shaq played the game. However, he was the only one who could behave with Shaq in such a manner. If Harrison saw his son getting beat up by others, he would not hesitate to go off on them, especially if it was a regular season game.
When Phillip A Harrison started screaming at Phil Jackson for letting Shaquille O’Neal beat up
During a regular season game in the late 90s, when Shaquille O’Neal was playing for the Lakers, Harrison saw him getting beat by the Spurs’ substitute big man, Felton Spencer. As it was a regular season game, Shaq’s father couldn’t understand why Phil still had him on the court when Gregg Popovich had brought David Robinson to the bench.
Phillip kept his anger until after the game, just got on the court to run up to Phil and confront him. Read the following excerpt from Shaq Talks Back, where Philip narrated the whole story of his first-ever meet-up with Jackson.
“I was so damn angry, I ran onto the court after the game. ‘What was that all about?’ I started screaming. Phil turned around a little shocked and wanted to know what the hell I’m doing on the court. Jerome Crawford, Shaquille’s bodyguard and surrogate uncle since the Newark days, pulled me away.”
Harrison stood up to other coaches of O’Neal besides Jackson.
Shaq’s stepfather stopped the LSU coach from teaching him KAJ’s skyhook
Dale Brown was the coach at LSU during Shaquille O’Neal’s time at the university. He brought one of the greatest big men of all time, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to teach O’Neal the most unstoppable stop in the history of sports — the skyhook.
Phillip Harrison, however, still preferred Shaq finishing near the rim. True to his persona, he let the coach know about it. Read about it from Shaq’s perspective in Shaq Uncut.
“My father heard about these visits and wanted to know why Dale was encouraging me to shoot a hook shot. ‘He’s a power player,’ my dad told my coach. “I want him to dunk.”
As a result of Harrison’s efforts, we have come to recognize O’Neal as an unrivaled force and the most dominant big man in the history of the game.
