Stephen A. Smith was recently in conversation with Udonis Haslem on his The OGs podcast. During the conversation, UD brought up the fact that Shaquille O’Neal claims that he has contributed immensely to the success of Stephen A. in his career. Interestingly, instead of denying Shaq’s theory, the NBA analyst went on to narrate an interesting encounter he had with the big fella’s mother, and in the end, he said that if O’Neal thinks that he deserves credit for his success, he’ll be more than happy to give him that.
Advertisement
The 56-year-old said that when Shaq started his NBA journey, he had high hopes for him as a fan of the sport. Somewhere along the way, those two became good friends and Stephen A. formed good relationship with Diesel’s family as well. Even though Stephen openly criticized the big fella whenever he saw a weakness in his game, Shaq never took offense to it because he knew that the radio host had his best interest at heart.
On the contrary, Shaq’s mom, Lucille O’Neal, believed that the media veteran was letting her son off the hook due to their friendship. He recalled,
“Mama Shaq one day rolled up on me ’cause she was mad… She was like, you’re too soft on my son. I don’t like that the fact that you’re letting him off the hook. Do your job. Hold him accountable.”
Stephen A. said the Hobo Master has a very supportive family who always pushed him to do better. So, as a part of his inner circle, when he was confronted by Shaq’s mother, he had no other option but to say yes. The NBA analyst said that this confrontation made him realize that Shaq Fu‘s family considers him as one of their own, so now he has a responsibility toward him. Shaq’s close ones pushed him to be better than he was and the result of it was a Hall of Fame career with four NBA titles.
Shaquille O’Neal’s mother recalled his first championship-winning moment
From the narration of Stephen A., it’s clear that the people around Shaq weren’t going to let him settle for less. So, when he ended up three peating the NBA title, it’s obvious that his clan must’ve been on cloud nine. Recently, Mama Shaq made an appearance on Sway’s Universe of Shade 45, where she was asked by the great Sway Calloway to detail her experience when Shaq won his first title. She said,
“We don’t have words for it. It took so long to come. And we watched the disappointments along the way. When I saw Shaquille crying, I was crying too. Because I know the journey, and how much it took for him to get there. And I felt it deep down in here.”
The Big Shamrock has always spoken very highly of his mom. He has stated time and again that every bit of his success belongs to her. It’s great to know that even she couldn’t hold her nerves when Shaq brought championships to the Lakers franchise.
