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

time someone in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) had ever gone over 100.
    Stanley showed up out of shape, and since Wayne Sims was a captain he had to get up at five o’clock in the morning and run with him. Wayne wasso pissed about that. The two of them were roommates, and once in a while Coach would call Wayne and say, “Is Stanley going to class? Let me talk to him.” Stanley hadn’t even come home from the night before, so Wayne would cover for him by saying, “He’s in the shower, Coach. He’ll have to call you back.”
    In spite of all that, Stanley still managed to average 14 points and 10 rebounds a game.
    We had some big wins that season. We were an up-tempo team, so we always had high-scoring games. We beat Texas 124–113, and I had a triple-double. Same thing against Loyola Marymount, when we beat them 148–141 in overtime. It was an incredible game. Loyola’s star Hank Gathers scored 48 points in 38 minutes. Both teams were just flying up and down the floor. I had a pretty good game myself—20 points,24 rebounds, and 12 blocks.
    About a month later, Hank Gathers collapsed and died in the middle of a basketball game in Los Angeles. We were shocked when we heard that. We were saying, “But we just saw him…” For a couple of weeks, we all kind of stopped in our tracks. It put everything in perspective.
    But, us being kids, it wasn’t long until we were back to goofing off and partying and havingfun and loving our lives as LSU Tigers.
    We went into the NCAA tournament with a 23-8 record and beat Villanova in the first round. If we won our next game against Georgia Tech, we’d get to return to Louisiana to play in New Orleans the following weekend.
    Georgia Tech was loaded with talent. They had four guys who wound up in the NBA: Kenny Anderson, Dennis Scott, Brian Oliver, and Malcolm Mackey.

    Stanley and I were close to unstoppable inside, and Vernel played a strong game, but they just kept burying threes over our backcourt of Chris Jackson and Mo. Chris had a bad game. He missed ten of his fifteen shots.
    Brian Oliver was all over him. His coach must have told him, “Don’t lose Chris Jackson,” because whenever Coach Brown called a time-out, Brian Oliver practically escorted Chris Jacksonto our bench.
    We lost 94–91 in overtime, and we were all pretty disappointed. I was kind of mad at Chris. He had this one herky-jerky move that got him open and he rarely missed, so normally you couldn’t say anything, but in that game he kept missing and missing and he just wouldn’t pass it. At one point I said to him, “What are you doing? Look inside.” He just looked at me. I felt like he soldus out a little bit. He wanted to get big numbers because he knew he was going pro.
    We had what they call “exit interviews” after the season, and Chris and Stanley went first. Chris went in to talk to Coach and he came out and said, “I’m gone. I’m leaving.”
    He was the No. 3 pick in the draft of the Denver Nuggets. He converted to Islam in 1991 and changed his name to Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. Thatdude loved the game of basketball. He played in Japan during the 2010–11 season at the age of forty-two. Bet he can still shoot.
    When Stanley went in for his meeting, Coach told him, “Stanley, I think you’ve done just about everything you can do at LSU. Maybe it’s time for you to move on.” It really was disappointing to Coach Brown that Stanley was out drinking and blowing off class and hangingwith his girlfriend.
    Stanley was the rebellious type. He told Coach Brown, “I’m not leaving yet.”
    Stanley thought Coach Brown was trying to run him out so they could feature me in the offense. My dad was talking to Dale Brown all the time, calling him and telling him I needed more shots, more playing time, so maybe that was true.
    Stanley had to take a summer course, and when the professor failedhim that pretty much decided it. He had already missed the NBA draft, so he went to play ball in Spain.
    With