Right from his LSU days, Shaquille O’Neal was a cut above the rest of the competition. The 7-foot-1 center used his size, strength, and surprisingly nifty footwork to demolish defenders and rims. However, while O’Neal’s numbers were comparable to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain’s, he couldn’t quite emulate the icons in the winning individual accolades section. This criticism irked O’Neal and got under his skin. But it all changed when his daughter Tahirah was born in 1996. On the Pound 4 Pound podcast, he told hosts Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo,
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“You read all these articles,’Oh you are not that dominant, you can’t make free throws, you’re never going to win a championship.’ It just ate me loudly. The only thing that saved me is that I had to learn how to turn it off… My first child (Tahirah) was a girl and I couldn’t bring [the frustration] home. So I had to program myself… And it was actually good.”
O’Neal claimed that raising Tahirah and spending time with her took his mind off basketball before games, and allowed him to be at ease. He also stopped taking losses and criticism to heart and instead, focused on spending quality time with his daughter regardless of the game’s result. O’Neal even claimed Tahirah coming into his life saved his career.
As a young basketball star, O’Neal got fixated on the comparisons to Chamberlain and Kareem, and failing to live up to the expectations was eating at him. But becoming a father changed his priorities and he blocked out the noise to ensure he could enjoy being a parent which helped him focus on the game and not the shenanigans around it. It worked wonders.
Shaq then led the Lakers to a three-peat, a feat neither Chamberlain nor Kareem achieved. He finished his career with four NBA titles and is still remembered as one of, if not the most dominant player in the league’s history. O’Neal’s daughter taught him that there are more important things in life in basketball, and ironically, it made him the best version of himself on the court.
Shaquille O’Neal’s parenting style is a lot different from how he was raised
Shaquille O’Neal’s childhood was tough. His family struggled to make ends meet and his stepfather, Phillip Harrison, was a disciplinarian, who was sometimes a bit too harsh on the Hall of Famer. While O’Neal had no disdain for his stepfather’s methods, his parenting style is far more laid back. In an interview with The Bump, he said,
“I was gone a lot because of my job and I didn’t always want to be the bad guy, so I sort of relinquished my position as [disciplinarian]. I was the one chasing the kids around the house and taking them to Toys’R’Us. I didn’t want to come home after a bad day and go off the handle… A lot of my father’s tactics would be frowned upon now. But it worked for me. I just teach my kids to be respectful … And I never had those problems that my parents had with me.”
Raising his six kids helped O’Neal escape the media’s scrutiny and the pressure that came with being one of the best players in the league. When he was around them, he muted the noise from his professional life and enjoyed his kids’ company. His approach hasn’t changed much since either. To this day, the gentle giant still goofs around with his kids, even at work, and enjoys spending time with them.
