At every stage of Shaq’s career, he seemed to be the most highly touted prospect at that particular stage. During his junior year at the collegiate level, he was averaging just under 25 points per game for Louisiana State University while shooting over 60% from the field.
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As history would dictate, Shaquille O’Neal would be drafted with the first overall pick by the Orlando Magic in the 1992 NBA Draft. However, tracing his dominance back to high school and it’s clear as to why he attended a reputed program like the one LSU had.
O’Neal broke down what led up to him becoming a Tiger and was quite humble about it as well. He revealed that he wasn’t all too great of a player in his freshman or sophomore years and only began to make a name for himself in his junior and senior years.
Shaquille O’Neal on how he was treated as a senior in high school
Shaquille O’Neal obliterated competition at the high school level as he averaged 31 points, 22 rebounds, and 6 assists a night as a senior for Robert G. Cole High School in San Antonio. He was the undisputed best player on his team and led them to a 36-0 season in his final year in HS.
During an appearance on the ‘Knuckleheads’ podcast, Shaq talked about how his play in his senior year garnered the attention and respect of several big name colleges. However, in the end, it was only LSU that made him feel like he was at home.
“Senior year, now I’m starting to make a name for myself. So now they were treating me like Jordan. I went to North Carolina and Rick Fox showed me around. It was too, let me say this without being disrespectful, it wasn’t ‘hood’ enough for me. It was too, ‘Hey sir,’ and I don’t like that,” said Shaq.
Shaquille O’Neal chose LSU over it all
Shaquille O’Neal and his family had already built up a relationship of sorts with LSU. When Shaq’s father, Philip Harrison, was stationed in West Germany, they would bump into Dale Brown, the head coach of the men’s basketball team for LSU.
LSU was also not a school that was as ‘prim and proper’ as Chapel Hill and so ‘The Big Aristotle’ fit in well and could be himself. The Tigers went 64-29 with Shaq in those 3 years but would unfortunately never be able to claim an NCAA championship in those years.
