On the Court With... Shaquille O'Neal

by Matt Christopher

  Coach Ford McMurty was impressed with Shaquille, not just because he could play well but because he seemed determined to succeed. The tenth-grader listened to every word the coach said and worked hard at practice. The other players on the team began to look up to him, not just because he was so tall but because of the good example he set as a teammate.

  In years past, Fulda had been an easy team to beat. But Coach McMurty knew that no one in the league was as big as Shaquille. He decided to make the fourteen-year-old the focal point of the team's offense. Early in the season it became clear that with Shag in control, Fulda was no longer a pushover.

  And control was what Shaquille was all about. Although he was big, he knew how to handle the ball and pass. Every once in a while he would shock his coach with a between-the-legs dribble or a behind-the-back pass. Midway through the season he was averaging 18 points a game and 12 rebounds. Fulda appeared headed to the playoffs for the first time in many seasons.

  But just before the start of the playoffs, Shaquille's father learned that he was being transferred again, this time to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. Shaquille was happy to be returning to the United States but was disappointed that he had to leave his team in the middle of the season.

  So was everyone else on the base. They enjoyed watching the team. When the soldiers learned that Shaquille was leaving, they tried to convince Phil Harrison to allow his son to live with another family and finish the season. They even took up a collection to pay for Shaquille's plane ticket to Texas after the playoffs.

  But Shaquille's father didn't want his family to be split up. Even though he knew that Shaquille wanted to finish the season, he also knew that his son had made great strides in his life. He had arrived in Germany a confused and sometimes troubled kid. Now he was a respectful young man. Phil Harrison wanted to make sure his son's progress as a person continued. That was much more important than basketball. It was a hard choice, but he decided that Shaquille would move to the United States with the rest of his family.

  It was time for Shaquille to go back home.

  Chapter Two: 1987–89

  Growing Up … and Up

  When Shaquille walked into Cole High School in San Antonio, Texas, for his first day of school, everyone looked up to him — but only because of his size. Shaquille was determined that before long, they'd look up to him because he was a leader.

  Although it was too late in the year for Shaquille to join the basketball team, Coach Dave Madura heard about him just moments after he stepped into the school for the first time. Cole was a small school, and most athletes were far more interested in playing football than basketball. Those students who preferred basketball were nowhere near as big as Shaquille.

  Many students at Cole were from military families and transferred in and out of the school midyear. Madura rarely knew which players he would have from one year to the next. But because Shaquille was already in tenth grade, he knew there was a good chance that Shaquille would stay at Cole until he graduated, but there was no guarantee.

  Even after Madura learned that Shaquille had been an emerging star in Germany, he was still a little skeptical. He had coached many players from military families who had played in Germany, but few of them had managed to adjust to the much more competitive game played in American high schools. He reserved judgment until he had a chance to see the new tenth-grader play.

  When he did, he was pleasantly surprised. Although Shaquille was still sort of clumsy and slow, he was huge. More important, however, Madura also noticed that Shaquille was eager to learn and worked very hard. He knew that if Shaquille worked hard enough, he had the potential to be a star. Coach Madura kept a close eye on him for the rest of the year and during the summer. The more he saw, the better he felt about Shaquille's prospects.

  Shaquille, meanwhile, was adjusting well to life in Texas. Before school started the following fall, he told the Cole football coach he wanted to try out for the football team. To his surprise, the coach replied, “Absolutely not.” It turned out that Coach Madura had already spoken to the football coach about Shaquille's potential, and the two men agreed that Shaquille's athletic future was in basketball. There was simply too much risk of an injury if he played football. As the football coach recalled later, “We all knew he'd be an NBA player.”

  But nobody else did — yet. Since Shaquille had been overseas, no one in basketball, except Coach Brown and Coach Madura, had ever heard of him. By high school, most talented players have played in summer basketball leagues and attended basketball camps where college recruiters can take a close look at them. The best players are already known to almost everyone. Shaquille, however, was still a secret to every college coach in the country except Dale Brown. He wouldn't remain a secret for long.

  When basketball practice started in the fall of Shaquille's junior year, Madura was thrilled with Shaquille's performance. He had improved dramatically and could now dunk the ball with ease. Several of his teammates were also talented players. Madura knew that the Cole High Cougars were headed for a successful season, particularly if everyone on the team worked hard and stayed out of trouble.

  He didn't have to worry about Shaquille. The junior had turned his life around completely. When some students tried to get him to smoke marijuana or drink, Shaquille went the other way. He was respectful in class and wasn't a bully anymore. He was becoming a leader.

  Keyed by Shaquille, the Cougars got off to a roaring start, winning every game early in the season, usually by a wide margin. Coach Madura installed a running offense to take advantage of his team's depth and the fact that Shaquille, despite his size, knew how to run the court. On the fast break, Shaquille was just as adept at passing the ball as he was at throwing down a shot.

  Cole was one of the smaller high schools in Texas, in Class 2A with other similar-sized schools. But some larger schools, including a few in the largest school division, Class 5A, had scheduled games against Cole. They assumed these games would be easy wins.

  That may have been true in the past, but not with Shaquille on the court. Early in the season Cole knocked off several larger schools. As the Cougars piled up win after win, they began to be considere one of the best 2A schools in the state.

  Shaquille was playing great, scoring more than 20 points per game, grabbing rebounds by the dozen, and blocking shots. But he didn't care how many points he scored as long as his team won. He intimidated other teams just by stepping onto the court. As one opposing coach later commented, “We were beat as soon as our players got a look at Shaquille.”

  As the season progressed, Shaquille grew more confident in his abilities. He became more aggressive, jumping higher and dunking the ball more often. He absolutely loved to dunk the ball. As he became stronger, he didn't just stuff the ball through the hoop but jammed it in as hard as he could, sometimes hanging on the rim afterward with his mouth wide open. On more than one occasion, he dunked so hard that he even bent the rim on the basket!

  Cole won their league easily, then went on to the state Class 2A basketball tournament. They had little difficulty reaching the state finals in Austin, Texas, where they put their undefeated record up against Liberty Hills.

  Cole was a big favorite to win the game. No one had been able to stop Shaquille all year long, and it didn't appear that Liberty Hills had a player talented enough to do so, either.

  But the Liberty Hills coach had scouted Shaquille and had come up with a plan. The only weak spot in Shaquille's game was his tendency to get in foul trouble. He was so big and strong that referees sometimes called fouls on him even when he didn't commit one. At other times Shaquille simply got too excited and fouled someone unnecessarily, particularly when trying to block a shot. He would jump high in the air and swat the ball away, but lose control of his body on his way back down and bump into the shooter for a foul.

  Liberty Hills decided that their best chance to win would be to get Shaquille in foul trouble. They put that strategy into play soon after
the opening tip. Instead of staying away from him on offense, they went right after him. And on defense, every time Shaquille tried to get position close to the basket, a Liberty Hills player would fall down to try to make it look as if Shaquille had knocked him over. Liberty Hills wanted to trick the referees into calling a foul on Shaquille.

  Before Cole figured out what was happening, Shaquille had been charged with four fouls in the first quarter. The rules of high school basketball state that after five fouls, a player is ineligible to play the remainder of the game. Coach Madura had to remove Shaquille from the game so he wouldn't foul out.

  His teammates played hard without him and did their best, but Liberty Hills took command of the game. Although Shaquille eventually returned in the fourth quarter, Cole was far behind by then. They lost for the first time all season.

  Shaquille was crushed. He sat in the locker in tears after the game, convinced that he had cost his team a chance to win. Cole assistant coach Ken Nakamura tried to console him afterward and told him he had to learn from the defeat. “Remember this feeling,” said Nakamura. Shaquille was determined to do everything possible to make sure he never felt that bad again.

  Although Shaquille was disappointed to lose the final game of the season, now that he had a taste of success, he was determined to achieve even more. He started working out with weights and got even stronger. He joined a summer league team and played basketball almost every day. His strength, stamina, and leaping ability improved tremendously.

  Shaquille also started studying the game of basketball. He watched professional basketball on television whenever he could and started picking up tips from the pros. He saw how they jockeyed for position without being called for fouls and how they used fakes to get easy shots.

  In the summer before Shaquille's senior year, Coach Madura's only concern in regard to Shaquille was that he was so big and strong — now nearly seven feet tall and 300 pounds — that few players his age were providing him with a challenge. He was afraid that Shaquille would develop bad habits playing against less-talented players and that when he finally went up against another player of his own size and ability, he wouldn't know how to respond. He also realized that other teams would try to get Shaquille in foul trouble just as Liberty Hills had. Shaquille still had to learn how to play hard without committing fouls.

  Coach Madura decided that Shaquille needed some special attention. He contacted a former player named Herb More and offered him a job as assistant coach. Before Shaquille, More had probably been the best player in the history of Cole High School. He still held the single-game scoring record.

  Madura told More all about Shaquille. He had a plan.

  “I want you to work with this kid,” he said. “We've got a chance at the state title, but I don't have anyone to work with him at practice.” More, who was six feet six inches tall, understood. His role at practice would be to play against Shaquille and give him some competition.

  More played Shaquille tough during practice and was much more physical against him than most high school players. He knew that when Shaquille played against smaller players, many referees would allow those players to get away with fouls. He wanted Shaquille to become accustomed to being knocked around without retaliating. Still, as More recalled later, from the very beginning, “Whenever he wanted, he'd just push me out of the way.”

  Shaquille and the Cole basketball team had been a big surprise in his junior year. Now every team on their schedule knew that Shaquille was one of the best players in the state and that Cole was one of the best teams in Texas. It was time for the rest of the world to discover Shaquille, too.

  Just before the start of the basketball season, Shaquille was invited to play for the San Antonio team at the Basketball Congress International tournament. Teams from cities all over the country entered the tournament, including most of the top high school players. Hundreds of college scouts attended the tournament to evaluate players. The tournament would be a big test for Shaquille. Never before had he played against so many talented players, and for the first time in his basketball career he would have to play against players almost as big as he was.

  At the beginning of the tournament, hardly anyone knew who Shaquille was. By the end of the tournament, everyone did. As Shaquille recalled later, “I just kept dunking and dunking.”

  It didn't matter who was guarding Shaquille or how they tried to defend him. He just kept raising his game to another level. It was as if with each shot, Shaquille was discovering just how good he could be.

  Basketball insiders were stunned. They'd never heard of Shaquille before, but he was easily the best player in the entire tournament, which meant that he was easily one of the best high school players in the country. A basketball magazine wrote a story on him that said just that. Before long, San Antonio newspapers sent reporters to write about him as well. All of a sudden he was famous.

  Before the tournament, only a few small colleges in Texas had expressed interest in Shaquille. But after the tournament, all the best college basketball programs in the nation wanted Shaquille to attend their school. He was flooded with letters and scholarship offers from colleges all over the country.

  Shaquille's father and Coach Madura quickly took over the college recruiting process. They knew that Shaquille needed to focus on what he was doing and not be distracted by all the attention. Phil Harrison and Coach Madura weeded through all the offers, selected ten, and threw all the other letters away. Only those ten schools would be allowed to communicate with Shaquille.

  Among the few coaches and schools they allowed to speak with Shaquille was North Carolina and its legendary coach Dean Smith. Michael Jordan had attended North Carolina and played for Smith. Another coach they allowed to contact Shaquille was Louisiana State coach Dale Brown. Shaquille remembered the way Brown had gone out of his way to offer him encouragement a couple of years earlier. Shaquille had watched LSU play on television and liked the fast, up-tempo style of play Brown taught. The Tigers were one of the best teams in the country, and Shaquille knew that several of their frontcourt players were scheduled to graduate. Brown hadn't forgotten about Shaquille, either. In fact, he had been watching his progress closely.

  Shaquille took a close look at several schools and met with their basketball coaches. Most told him what a big star he would be and how he would be on the starting team right away. But when Shaquille met with Coach Brown, he wasn't promised a spot in the starting lineup. “You might be able to play,” said Coach Brown. He made it clear that Shaquille would have to work for everything he wanted to accomplish. Shaquille liked that. He didn't want a place in the starting lineup handed to him.

  Shaquille also knew that if he chose LSU, he wouldn't be expected to carry the team on his shoulders. LSU already had a star, guard Chris Jackson, who would be doing that. LSU was also closer to his home in San Antonio than many of the other colleges, such as North Carolina. When Coach Brown offered him a scholarship, Shaquille agreed to go to LSU.

  There were only two things that could stop Shaquille from reaching college now — an unfortunate injury or his academic eligibility. A bad injury could ruin his career. Poor grades or poor scores on the college entrance tests could also prevent him from being accepted into school.

  But Shaquille had learned to take care of his body to prevent injuries by working out, and he had taken a similar approach in the classroom. He studied hard, paid attention, and did his homework. His grades were good enough, but he still had to do well on one of the two college entrance tests, the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Test (ACT).

  Shaquille didn't take any chances. Although he needed a good score on only one of the tests, he took both. The results of the SAT came back first.

  Shaquille was disappointed. Despite his good grades, he had fallen behind and his score was too low for him to get into LSU. Now he regretted all the times he had wasted fooling around in school when he was younger. Although he'd worked hard since then, he belie
ved his earlier attitude had cost him.

  Fortunately, although the two tests are similar, they aren't identical. He had a much easier time with the ACT, and his scores were more than sufficient for him to enroll at LSU. He would even be able to play as a freshman. A new rule, known as Proposition 48, sometimes requires students with marginal scores to sit out their freshman season until they can prove they can do collegiate work. But Shaquille wouldn't have to wait. He would be allowed to play right away.

  Now he was able to focus on his senior year at Cole. Expectations for both Shaquille and the team were high. Every team they faced would be trying their best to beat them. And in order to defeat Cole, the opposition would have to stop Shaquille.

  That was easier said than done. Shaquille was learning fast, and More had prepared him for everything he was about to face on the basketball court.

  Most schools used a similar strategy to try to stop Shaquille. When Cole had the ball, they'd place one defender behind him to try to keep him away from the basket, and one or two players in front of him to prevent him from getting the ball on a pass. But this often left other Cole players wide-open. And when the defense scrambled to cover those players, Shaquille was left open for a pass or given a clear path to the basket for either a dunk or a shot from close range.

  Still, almost every time Shaquille got near the ball, a player on the other team would act as if he was fouled and try to fool the referee. If Shaquille gave another player the slightest bump, the other player would fly through the air as if Shaquille had run into him at full speed.

  But Shaquille had learned his lesson in the game against Liberty Hills and in practice playing against Coach More. On offense he became adept at passing the ball so that when the defense collapsed on him, he could make room for himself on the court. On defense he played aggressively but he also played smart. He didn't try to cover everyone or try to block shots that he had no chance of reaching. And when he jumped in the air, he stayed in control.