“The Hell with Dr. J”: Shaquille O’Neal’s Father Erased Teenage Son’s Fear of Dunking By Shaming His ‘Finger Roll’

Shaquille O’Neal‘s legacy is built on his incredible playoff resume and dominant play style. The Hall of Famer attacked the rim with ferocity and tore down multiple backboards during his career. Given his massive size advantage, it made sense why O’Neal deployed an offensive playstyle that revolved around dunking the ball as often as possible. However, that wasn’t his preferred style and was inculcated in him by his stepfather, Phillip Harrison.

In a book titled “Shaq Uncut,” Shaq revealed an incident from 1987 when he was a junior in high school, his team was leading by 30, and he decided to showboat. He was emulating legendary forward Julius “Dr. J” Irving‘s moves. The 7’1″ star, who had already scored 39 points, was dribbling the ball up the court and doing finger rolls at the rim. An irate Harrison, who was in attendance, walked onto the court and demanded O’Neal call a timeout. After he did, he took him aside and asked why he wasn’t dunking the ball. The young basketball star replied that he was emulating Dr. J.

An irate Harrison slapped O’Neal and yelled:

“The hell with Dr. J! You start working on being Shaquille O’Neal. Now you go out and dunk the ball!” 

An upset O’Neal returned to the game and had no choice but to dunk. When he did, he saw the fear in the eyes of the defenders and realized they were scared of him and couldn’t stop him. From then on, Shaq did away with the finesse and focused on ferocity. He became so proficient at using his entire strength to dunk the ball that he broke a slew of backboards in his career, including two during NBA games.

He also made a tree out of all the backboards he has broken in his career. It features 18 baskets.

However, the laser focus on dunking had one negative effect on his game. Shaq became terrible at landing jump shots. The Lakers legend only managed to score 1 3-pointers from his attempted 22 in his whole career. He also became a poor free-throw shooter, which became ammunition for opposition teams during his career. Late in games, teams intentionally fouled O’Neal and sent him to the free-throw line.

The tactic was called ‘Hack-A-Shaq.’ O’Neal attempted 11,252 free throws in his NBA career, making 5937. His 52.7% free throw success rate is the second-lowest among players with at least 5,000 attempts. Wilt Chamberlain, second on the all-time free throw attempts list with 11,862, has the lowest with 51.1%.

Dunking became Shaquille O’Neal’s identity

Shaquille O’Neal’s impeccable dunking became the most recognizable part of his identity as a basketball superstar. His ability to soar in the air, clear any hurdle, and finish with authority earned him the nickname ‘Superman.’

O’Neal also built a brand out of his dunking prowess. Akin to Michael Jordan‘s Air Jordan silhouette, the four-time NBA champions created the “Dunkman,” which featured on his signature shoe line.

O’Neal’s statue outside the Crypto.com Center, the Lakers’ home stadium, also features the 7’1″ giant dunking the ball.

O’Neal dunks were dreaded by players but adored by fans. While there have been an unfathomable number of great dunkers in NBA history, none struck fear among players like O’Neal.