Shaquille O’Neal is a big and intimidating-looking person, but underneath, he has a much calmer, softer, and friendly demeanor, kind of like a gentle giant. He once had the chance to sit down with former Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder to discuss the troubled story of his biological father. The way he spoke about him, you could tell that there was a more vulnerable and open side to Shaq, echoing the sentiment of him being viewed as a gentle giant.
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Shaq didn’t get the opportunity to grow up with his biological father and was instead raised by his stepfather, Phillip Harrison, who gave Shaq the morals and values he holds true to himself. His stepdad was sometimes excessively hard on Shaq, but it was all to make sure Shaq could be the most successful person he was meant to be. For example, Harrison never used to display the trophies Shaq won with his youth sports team because he didn’t want him to feel content and stop being hungry for more. He also made sure Shaq adopted a very hardline stance against drugs, saying to him, “If I ever catch you doing coke, I’ll kill you.”
Shaq is extremely grateful for the way Harrison raised him, especially considering the fact that he wasn’t his actual son but was still raised like he was.
Shaquille O’Neal describes the troubles with his biological father to Channing Crowder
Shaquille O’Neal had a tough childhood. As a toddler, he had to see his biological father, Joseph Toney, be arrested for substance abuse and forging checks.
Toney is considered to be an ex-convict, and after he was done with his six years in jail, he found out that Harrison had moved out to Germany with Shaq and his mother. Toney never made any efforts to reconnect with Shaq or make amends for what he had done, and similarly, Harrison forbade Toney from making contact with Shaq, agreeing that it was the best course of action.
Shaq opened up about some other dark details about his past with Channing Crowder. As Shaq was a toddler when his father left, he didn’t really understand what was going on at the time, and he couldn’t associate events at a deeper level simply because he wasn’t old enough.
As a result, Shaq didn’t know that Harrison wasn’t his biological father till he was 11 years old. He finally one day asked his mom why his last name was different than his siblings, and she told him the whole story. However, it did take Shaq 11 years to find, showing just how much he had to endure.
After that, Shaq’s mother asked him if he wanted to see his biological father, and not knowing any better, Shaq agreed. He wouldn’t meet Toney again until he was 18, but the NBA legend has admitted that he doesn’t hold any grudge against Toney. He made the most of his life, regardless of Toney’s presence, and that’s all that mattered to him. Here’s the particular clip:
And here’s the entire podcast episode:
Channing Crowder helped his wife find her lost father
Shaq opening about such a deep topic must’ve been hard for him, but he picked the right man to do it to. Channing Crowder knows a little bit about abandonment and troubles with family as he dealt with a somewhat similar situation with his wife.
Crowder helped his wife find her long-lost father. His wife, Aja Crowder, lived most of her life without her father as her mother parted ways with her then-boyfriend Bruno while she was pregnant. After Channing and Ava married, they set out to locate Aja’s father.
Channing Crowder put out a post on Twitter where he asked the Twitter community to help locate Aja’s father. In a wild twist of events, Bruno reached out, and the father-daughter pair were reunited, and they now share a close relationship.
