Shaq Uncut: My Story by Shaquille O’Neal, Jackie Macmullan

who has his own set of very strong opinions. When they sit down Sarge is giving Dale one of his best death stares, but Coach Brown isn’t intimidated at all. He tells Sarge, “I’m obviously here because your son is a talented player. Now all the programs are going to tell you about their facilities and how they’ll get to the FinalFour and all the money they can make for Shaquille.
    “I just want you to know I’m recruiting a human being first and a basketball player second, and twenty-five years from now, if your son is willing to listen to what I’m teaching him, I will still be in his life. I will be a big part of his life.”
    That’s how he got Sarge to sign off. I can tell you that everything Coach Brown told me that daycame true. After I left LSU in 1992, I went straight to the NBA and made millions of dollars. I have a house in Orlando that is sixty-four thousand square feet and has an indoor gymnasium, a cigar room, a movie theater, anda seventeen-foot-deep pool. And Dale Brown is still in my life. He’s part of my inner circle, and it’s a small, small group.
    Once I commit to LSU I become a rock star at ColeHigh School. I’m going to be a big college stud so I start acting the part while I’m still playing for the Cougars.
    We lose Jeff Petress for a while because of bad grades, but it doesn’t matter. This kid named Eric Baker can score a little for us and we are undefeated again, and I’m getting a lot of press and I start thinking I’m The Man. Our games are sold out every night. Little kids are liningup asking for my autograph. My teammates started calling me Shaquille the Deal, or sometimes just The Deal.
    It was just an amazing feeling. I had spent so much time wondering if I would ever get to this point, especially after I had gotten cut from the team in Germany. But now, just like Sarge said, it was all coming together. I really thought I was something special, just like my mother alwayssaid I would be.
    So one day I get to school and I’m walking down the left side of the hall and I notice everyone else is walking on the right. When I sit down at lunch, everyone gets up the minute I put down my tray. I’m thinking, “What the hell is this?” It was Joe Cavallero that did it. He thought I was getting too big. He thought I was forgetting about the team and focusing too much on myself.He was right. I had to humble myself. Joe was going to make sure I did, because if I didn’t, he knew we couldn’t win.
    That shit went on for a week. It was kind of lonely, but I had my Walkman and my princess girlfriend, so it could have been worse. For a few days I was thinking, “Screw you guys. Who needs you? I’m going to LSU in three months.”
    But I got the message. It was the same one my dadtaught me when I was a little boy named Shaun playing YMCA basketball in the championship game. My father was the coach, and the guys on the other side were working their asses off trying to beat me.
    We got a pretty big lead, and my father called time-out and yanked me from the game and put in this kid who couldn’t play a lick. Therewere five minutes left in the game and this kid was bangingaround and just screwing up everything. Next thing you know we were down 10, and I had to go back in to save the game. I’m looking at my father like, “What the hell? Why did you do that? We’re trying to win.” He said to me, “It’s not always about winning at all costs. Everybody deserves a chance. You have to develop the players around you. That’s what great players do. It’s your job to make sureit comes out okay.” ’
    So now I’m a senior in high school and it’s my job to make sure it comes out okay. Every game I’d take over for the first seven possessions and we’d be ahead 10–2 or 14–4. Once that happened I’d dribble the ball up and start dishing to Darren Mathey or Joe. My job was to be the point center and get everyone feeling part of it. Instead of being a show-off and just