Shaquille O’Neal is the most dominant player to ever grace an NBA court, and it was his father, Phillip A. Harrison who made him that way. Over the years, O’Neal has shared far too many stories about how he wanted to be more like the finesse-heavy greats of the NBA, your Julius Ervings or even George Gervins. But it is his father who forced him to use his strength in the way that made him one of the greatest players to ever lace up. And apparently, as Shaquille recently reminded all his followers on Instagram, that did not stop, even if he was dead in the middle of an NBA game.
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Shaquille O’Neal remembers the fear he had for dad Phillip A. Harrison even in the middle of his NBA career
Shaquille O’Neal’s stepfather, Phillip A. Harrison was an army man. He loved Shaq like all of his other children, but made sure tough love was a heavy part of the equation, and with good reason.
You see when it came to the sport of basketball, Harrison always believed that O’Neal was so strong as a player, he could impose his will at any level of the game, just as long as he knew how to do it. And while the man did teach his son how to do it, it appears that Shaquille O’Neal sometimes had to be reminded how to do it again.
And as Shaquille O’Neal reveals in the Instagram post by ‘notyouraverage_nba’, that didn’t stop even in the middle of NBA games. Of course, there is also a tweet right below the Instagram post by Tonoy Sengupta, with the screenshot of Shaquille O’Neal reposting it on his story.
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Even in the middle of NBA games, Shaquille O’Neal was not safe from his father pic.twitter.com/RuKPS0apse
— Tonoy Sengupta (@TonoySengupta) April 28, 2023
“Uncle Jerome was security behind the bench. And my father (Phillip A. Harrison) would call him during the game… ‘Yes, sir?’
(Harrison tells Shaq) ‘Why the f**k am I watching this sh*t?! You’re playing like a little b*tch. Turn it up, mother*cker!’”
Those are some rousing words if we’ve ever seen some. And it’s hard to deny their effect since they clearly worked on Shaq. Who knows, if it weren’t for Phillip A. Harrison, maybe we would’ve never known about Shaquille O’Neal.
When did Phillip A. Harrison pass away?
Shaquille O’Neal’s adoptive father Phillip A. Harrison passed away at the ripe age of 66 due to complications with his health. To this day, Shaquille O’Neal remains beyond thankful to him for teaching him all the important life lessons he forced him to learn.
