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IIRC one of Dave's sons had Shaq as his favorite player as a kid.
Shaq was popular everywhere — except in Spurs Nation
Posted on June 1, 2011 at 4:11 pm by Tim Griffin in Billy Knight, Cole High School, David Robinson, George McGinnis, Lawrence Funderburke
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Local product Shaquille O'Neal had a memorable rivalry with David Robinson and the Spurs, including this dunk shot during the 2002 playoffs. (File photo by Bahram Mark Sobhani)
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It’s a memory I can’t shake even though it happened nearly 22 years ago.
Back in the old days when cellular phones were the size of shoeboxes, 17-year-old Shaquille O’Neal was already a certifiable San Antonio icon.
I can still remember seeing O’Neal walking on the track at Alamo Stadium in his role of torchbearer in the 1989 Junior Olympics. In the moments before he lit the flame, he was talking with some of his friends on an early-model cellular telephone that was so big that O’Neal needed two hands to hold it.
O’Neal came to Cole High School in the spring of his sop re year. He led the Cougars to the Region IV-2A final his junior season and the Class 3A state championship the next year, when he averaged 31.2 points a game and set a state rebounding record for all classes that still stands to this day.
Cole was 68-1 during his time there, including a 36-0 record during his senior season.
In the Junior Olympics, O’Neal and a team of local high-school stars beat a team of Indiana high-school standouts including future NBA players Lawrence Funderburke and Calbert Cheaney coached by George McGinnis and Billy Knight for the gold medal. The game was played before an overflow crowd at Alamo Gymnasium. O’Neal never was as beloved as much locally after that.
After a three-year stay at LSU, O’Neal was drafted by the Orlando Magic where he became an immediate rival of David Robinson and the Spurs. With Penny Hardaway, the Magic were a model developing franchise.
But for his first game in his adopted hometown in 1993, O’Neal was tossed out of the game after he was whistled for two technicals after he backed over Robinson in the lane.
O’Neal had bought more than 500 tickets for the game for his friends and family members at that game. But after the technicals he was mercilessly jeered by Spurs fans as he left the court. His stepfather Phillip Harrison got a similar treatment from when he immediately rounded up his family and headed for the exit after the ejection.
The rivalry between San Antonio and O’Neal intensified when he left the Magic for a free-agent contract with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1996. The Spurs swept the Lakers en route to the 1999 championship, but the Lakers returned the favor beating the Spurs in the playoffs in le-winning seasons in 2001 and 2002.
In his 2001 autobiography “Shaq Talks Back,” O’Neal wrote derisively of Robinson’s “goody two-shoes image.” He also couldn’t help wondering how good Tim Duncan would be without Robinson. “You take one of them 7-footers away, and I don’t know. I think if Duncan had to do what I had to do. . . . I’m just saying if I had another 7-footer, I’d have an even nicer game.”
O’Neal’s most famous comment about the Spurs came on the “Late Show with David Letterman” in 2001 when he referred to them as a “WNBA team.”
His dominating, physical play made Spurs Nation perceive him as a Laker to be loathed.
While he attended LSU, O’Neal reportedly revered Robinson and his athletic game. But O’Neal has often mentioned an earlier brush with Robinson in the late 1980s, when he said Robinson signed an autograph without pausing to visit, as the beginning of an adversarial relationship.
“He wrote his name real quick and was, like, ‘Yeah, come on, hurry up.’ He kind of dogged me. He was my favorite player,” O’Neal wrote. “That’s when I said to myself, ‘When I see you, I’m gonna get you.’ ”
Robinson fired back when asked if there was a part of O’Neal that intimidated him the most.
Robinson chuckled as he said, “His writing.”
And when O’Neal’s book came out, a local reporter showed it to Robinson so he could ask about the insults.
Robinson joked, “What is it? A picture book?”
Later, their relationship thawed. The Los Angeles Times reported that O’Neal once gave one of his game jerseys to Robinson’s two sons.
Throughout his lengthy career, O’Neal became one of othe most popular players in NBA history where he was revered for his warm caring side.
He was a pop culture icon with a career in acting and as a rapper. He released four albums, with his first “Shaq Diesel”‘ going platinum. He also started in his own television reality shows “Shaq’s Big Challenge” and “Shaq Vs.”
He was a 15-time All-Star who won in the NBA’s Most Valuable Player Award in 2000 and was the MVP of the Finals in 2000, 2001 and 2002. With 28,596 career points, O’Neal ranks fifth on the NBA career scoring list.
Affable with the media and beloved by many NBA fans, O’Neal might have been one of most approachable and popular athletes of his era.
Everywhere except in Spurs Nation, where fans had trouble forgiving him because of his battles with the Spurs over the years.
IIRC one of Dave's sons had Shaq as his favorite player as a kid.
Shaq had no respect for D Rob and so I had no respect for Shaq. His act was never that amusing to me because he had the personality of a doorknob.
I wonder if Shaq had a little more respect for Tim after this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR6AgYWdoBQ
Shaq always calls him the best player besides him in that era, he always says me and Mr Fundamentals so I would say his mind did change shortly after he said it.
Shaq was a buffoon who always did the shuck and jive for the media, causing them to portray him in a positive light. He failed at acting and rapping, and frankly failed to reach more than maybe 80% of his potential as a basketball player, due mainly to laziness. He had two B2B monster seasons in 99-00 and 00-01, but should have probably had 6 or 7 of those type years. Instead, he got fat and lazy and did a very credible 10 year impersonation of the Sta-Puffed marshmallow man.
That 's depressing. Duncan used to take over games. I still believe he has the skill to do what he did then, he just seems more interested in letting the chips fall where they may.
Uh...Duncan has lost more than a step
I'm sure that Portland, Sacramento, and Orlando just love him to death too. Although San Antonio's kind of a weird situation. Shaq was always a drama generator wherever he went and whoever he played against and the Spurs two franchise big men were about as drama free as it gets. That autograph story (which IIRC was later revealed as bull . Shaq made it up as mental motivation for when he played the Spurs?) was probably the closest anyone ever came to casting an aspersion on The Admiral as a person. And then Duncan's a friggin robot out there. A few summers ago I was in the SA area and happened to catch Instant Replay on a night where they interviewed Shaq. They discussed Tim and Shaq expressed his respect for his skills but also because he's on the short list of guys that never took any of Shaq's baiting on the court.
I've always kind of liked Shaq. Understood the act.
I'd still take Shaq on the Spurs.
SpursNation is kinda ty, tbh.
Couldn't have said it better.
I can add to it though by saying that I didn't dislike him any more than I did any other compe ion.
shaq!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think you should do a "Thawts" on Shaq's retirement. It'd be great.
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