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

Author:Shaquille O’Neal & Jackie Macmullan [O’NEAL, SHAQUILLE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIO016000
ISBN: 9781455504428
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2011-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

2002

Los Angeles, California

Shaquille O’Neal was in training, but not for a fourth NBA championship. For years he had been enrolled in the Los Angeles Police Academy, a challenging physical and academic regimen he took on in addition to playing professional basketball.

His goal was to be a member of the SWAT team. The specific requirements for the specialized unit included the ability to scale a rope one hundred feet in the air. O’Neal had completed the conditioning tests, the sit-ups and the push-ups, had endured the verbal assaults and disciplinary penalties, but that rope climb kept crossing him up.

“I was too big,” he said. “I’d grab onto that thing and haul myself up, but I wasn’t able to hang on.”

Without completing the task, a spot on the SWAT team was out of the question.

Dozens of times, he tried to shimmy up that rope at the Academy. Each time, he failed. Finally the supervising officer told him, “Shaquille, I don’t think this is for you.”

A few weeks later, Mike Parris went to visit O’Neal at his Los Angeles home. He couldn’t help but notice the one-hundred-foot rope dangling from the roof.

“Police training,” said Shaq, when asked for an explanation.

For weeks the big man tested his will against the rope. One morning, Shaq decided to add some small knots so his grip was more stable. Within days, Shaquille O’Neal had scaled it to the top.

He skipped into the house and called Philip Harrison.

“Dad,” he said excitedly. “I did it!”

The following morning Shaq removed the knots and attempted to elevate himself without them. He made significant progress and was almost three quarters of the way up when he lost his grip and toppled seventy-five feet to the ground. He landed with a sickening thud squarely on his back.

For a moment, he thought he’d fractured his pelvis. He crawled into the house, calling for help. His injuries proved to be minor, but he was so bruised and sore he missed a couple of practices and a game with the Lakers.

“I could climb that rope with the knots all day, every day,” said O’Neal. “But without them . . . it was just too hard.”

The rope was taken down. The SWAT team dream was crossed off the list. The NBA superstar continued on with his chosen profession of dunking basketballs, but the disappointment lingered.

For the first time in his life, Shaquille O’Neal discovered there were some things a big man simply cannot do.

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