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

don’t know.
    I didn’t start the first four games of the season, because, I think, Coach Brown was worried about people expecting too much. But once people saw me play,they said, “Okay, this kid is serious about being great.”
    What they meant was, I wasn’t like Stanley.
    Looking back, I realize in many ways Stanley made me who I am. It was good to have someone there who was better than me. He had it all—girls, money, cars. Everyone loved him. What got in his way was his partying. That day in the dungeon when I went after him with the trash can, Stanley was hungover.He was there trying to sweat out the alcohol. I’m thinking,
Imagine how good he’d be if he hadn’t been out all night
.
    I didn’t drink, and after watching what it did to Stanley and some of the other guys, I was pretty sure I’d never be a drinker.
    There were plenty of other ways for me to have some fun.
    I had a Ford Bronco II. It wasn’t much of a car, but I’d move the seat all the way back onthe track so I could fit, and I put my own speakers in there, so that truck was rocking. I played that music so loud it was shaking.
    Just like every other place I went to when I was the new kid, I told a lot of jokes and did my break dancing at center court before practice. I got everybody loose. When I moved into my dorm, I set up my own little studio with a turntable and a mixer so I coulddo all my rapping. The guys loved it. My neighbors didn’t like it so much, though. I was always getting knocks on my door to turn down the music.
    Our team had a lot of fun together. We tended to travel in packs. A few of the guys got together and we called ourselves the Dunk Mob, because me, Shawn Griggs, and Vernel Singleton could all throw one down. We’d show up at the fraternity parties andget in a line with me in the front, and we’d do our Dunk Mob dance. We’d act like we were shooting a jump shot then rock this way, that way, then “do the dunk.”
    Everyone on campus loved it. It wasn’t long before everybodyknew me. I was making new friends every day. I loved college. I fit in at LSU. For the first time in my life, I felt like I belonged.
    I also knew I had to do well in schoolor my father would kill me. Even worse, my momma would be disappointed in me, and I never wanted to disappoint her.
    I took a public speaking class in my freshman year, and I was a little nervous about it because I had a bit of a stuttering problem. I asked Coach Brown to critique it for me. I did my speech and then I asked him, “Can you come to class while I do this?” He said, “I’ll be happyto, Shaquille.” The next day I showed up at class and there was Coach, in the back of the room, giving me the thumbs-up.
    I had the highest GPA on the team in my freshman season. I think if you ask my mother, she’ll tell you that was one of her proudest moments.
    We played our games in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, which was nicknamed the “Deaf Dome” because the fans were so loud.
    I spentmost of my freshman year at LSU in foul trouble. It was really frustrating. I couldn’t really understand how it was that I would take a shot with three guys hanging on me and there was no whistle, but the minute I got near anyone they were calling stuff on me. My dad always taught me, “When you get the ball, be aggressive with it.” It seemed like every time I took his advice, they’d call me forcharging.
    Coach Brown used to go crazy over that kind of stuff. I averaged only twenty-eight minutes a game as a freshman because I spent so much time on the bench in foul trouble.
    When I got there in my freshman year, I just wanted to fit in. I was still working on my game. I told Coach Brown, “Don’t worry about me. I don’t need to score. Let those other guys do that. I’ll just play defenseand block shots.”
    That was first and last time I ever said
that
.
    I still averaged 13.9 points and 12 rebounds a game, and I blocked a ton of shots—115 of them. That was the first