Shaquille O’Neal encouraged many young people to pursue basketball during his 19-year career; JJ Redick is just one of them. But there was a moment when Shaq was astonished to play with the players he grew up idolizing. Though he cites Jeff Bezos and Julius Erving among his influences, he mentioned Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing, two of the greatest NBA players of all time, this time. The former Laker talked about his first encounter and floor time with his childhood heroes on the most recent episode of “The Big Podcast with Shaq.”
Shaquille O’Neal during his rookie years
JJ Redick, one of the episode’s guests, opened by discussing his first encounter with Shaq while he was playing basketball. The former Clipper expressed his admiration for basketball players from the 1990s, including Shaq, Penny Hardaway, and the legendary Kobe Bryant. Shaq also added his anecdote about first meeting Jordan and Ewing after hearing his sincere admission.
Shaquille O’Neal speaks about meeting MJ and Ewing
Shaq disclosed when elaborating on the rationale behind respecting the Knicks legend. He claimed that Magic Johnson was his idol and that the former Lakers point guard had influenced the way he played. Shaq’s father, however, had different ideas. He said,
“I’ve said this many times, I felt like that when I played against Mike and Ewing,” “My father was always like, ‘You gotta play physical like Ewing…So, I started watching Ewing, liked the way he played, he was playing mean, he had 33, I wore 33.”
Shaq continued that when he went to shake the legend’s hand and got rebuked, “Shut the fu*k up, rookie. I’m about to bust your a**.” This made his fanboy moment fleeting. Shaq felt as like he was “seeing god” when he first laid eyes on the GOAT, even though their meeting was not the finest. Thankfully, his initial encounter with Jordan turned out to be more positive than his encounter with Ewing.
