The fame of celebrities certainly comes to their aid in times of dire need. For Shaquille O’Neal, it came even before his NBA career kicked off. A 16-year-old Shaq was in West Germany as his father was stationed at an American Army Base. There, his stardom saved him from public humiliation on numerous occasions. In 2011, the NBA icon revealed it candidly in his autobiography Shaq Uncut while highlighting the perks of being popular from a young age.
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The veteran admitted to breaking a few rules along with his friends in the late 1980s while staying abroad.
“There was a pool on the base, and on weekends in the summer it would close around ten o’clock. We’d wait until the lights were out and the officers went inside to have their cocktails, and then we’d hop the fence and do cannonballs in the pool.”
Following this, they used to become suspects as O’Neal revealed, “The officers would hear us splashing around and call the military police“. At that moment, his friends’ group used to put their athletic qualities to their best use to run away from that spot. The 4x champion put the limelight on antics, stating,
“We’d park Robbie’s car on the corner, sprint out of sight, and jump in the car and take off“.
The 7’1 basketball legend accepted how the military police often knew who the culprits were. He pointed it out, mentioning, “Most of the time, they knew it was us. I mean, there weren’t a whole bunch of six-foot-ten kids roaming around the base“. So, the 2000 MVP frankly admitted to getting a sort of celebrity treatment in those teenage years, stating,
“We were kind of famous for the athletic stuff we were doing, so they cut us some slack“.
These benefits came at a cost for Shaquille O’Neal
As a 15-year-old, Shaq had to fight his way up the ladder, especially because of his health condition. He suffered from Osgood-Schlatter disease, resulting in swelling and pain below his knee joint. Due to this, he had to fight hard to earn his recognition in the following years to cement his place on the court.
The initial hurdle in his path was his basketball coach in West Germany as Diesel mentioned in his book, “The coach of the team never even acknowledged me”. “He never looked at me, never bothered to learn my name. I don’t blame him, I guess. I was terrible,” he added. Following this, the center chose to change his fate by pushing the limits further.
He started wearing braces to perform on the court amidst his physical condition. The Big Aristotle looked back on that period, stating, “My knees were really bad at that time, and I had one of those brown knee braces with the hole in it on one knee and metal braces on the other because of my Osgood-Schlatter disease“. “I couldn’t do anything. It hurt too much,” Shaq continued to highlight the extent of his pain.
Despite the obstacles, he kept on going for years before eventually finding his place in the NBA. The Orlando Magic drafted him as the first overall pick in 1992 and since then, he never had to look back.
