Christopher Matt - On the court with--Shaquille ONeal

Shaquille O'Neal is a big, big man. He stands seven feet one inch tall and weighs more than 300 pounds. When Shaquille walks into a room or onto a basketball court, everyone takes notice.

Since becoming a professional basketball player at age nineteen, Shaquille O'Neal has done big things. Already considered one of the greatest players in basketball history, he has accomplished almost everything there is to accomplish in the National Basketball Association. As an individual, he has won the Rookie of the Year award and the scoring title, been named to the All-NBA first team four times, been selected to play in the NBA All-Star Game nine times, and has been chosen as the Most Valuable Player of the All-Star Game, regular season, and NBA Finals. As a member of the Los Angeles Lakers, he has helped his team win three consecutive NBA titles. He even helped the U.S. Olympic basketball team win a gold medal at the 1996 Olympic Games. In the off-season he has somehow found time to record five rap CDs and appear in three movies. He even owns his own record label and clothing line!

Believe it or not, success did not come easily to Shaquille O'Neal. Long before he became a professional basketball player, O'Neal had to learn to live with his size both on and off the court. Simply being the biggest kid in class or the biggest kid on his block wasn't always enough to ensure success. Being the biggest player on the basketball court didn't mean that he knew how to play well or how to help his team win. In both his private life and his basketball career, Shaquille O'Neal has had to learn the tough lesson that while his size is a great gift that makes him stand out from the crowd, how he makes use of that gift is far more important.

More than any individual honor or personal achievement, that lesson has been perhaps his greatest accomplishment. For not only is Shaq a great player and teammate, he has become a good person and a role model. He credits much of his success today to the example set by the most important person in his life: his mother, Lucille.

Lucille O'Neal grew up in Newark, New Jersey. Although her parents, Sirlester and Odessa O'Neal, didn't have much money, Lucille worked hard at school and dreamed of going on to college after high school and becoming a nurse. She was determined to make something of her life.

In high school she started dating an older student named James Toney. Toney was tall and good-looking and a star of the school basketball team. After high school he attended Seton Hall University in nearby East Orange, New Jersey, and continued to date Lucille.

But when Lucille was eighteen years old and still a senior in high school, she became pregnant. When she told Toney she was going to have a baby, he quickly made it clear that he had no plans to marry Lucille or help her raise a child. He had gotten involved with the wrong crowd and wasn't taking much responsibility for his own life.

Lucille stopped seeing Toney and began to make plans to take care of her child. She moved in with her grandmother Cillar and prepared to become a mother.

On March 6, 1972, Lucille O'Neal gave birth to a son. The baby was born healthy, weighing just under eight pounds. Lucille loved him with all her heart.

Many people in Lucille's family had distinctive names, and she wanted her son to have a unique name as well, one that she hoped would reflect his future life. She knew their life would be a struggle, so she selected an Islamic name, Shaquille Rashaun, which means little warrior. As she later explained to a reporter, I felt he was my little one, my little warrior. I wanted him to be strong, independent, and tough. Since James Toney was no longer a part of her life, she gave her son her own last name, O'Neal.

After taking care of the infant for a few months, Lucille reluctantly left her son in day care each day and went to work for the city of Newark as a receptionist at a youth center. Although she didn't earn much money, she was able to pay her bills. She worked hard and soon applied for other jobs with the city, eventually becoming a clerk in the payroll department at City Hall.

Meanwhile, her little warrior, Shaquille, was beginning to grow. He loved to eat and was very bright and energetic. He didn't want to be held or cuddled very much. He was happy-go-lucky and liked to play.

When Shaquille was only two years old, his mother met Phillip Harrison. Harrison was nothing like James Toney. He had two young children from a previous marriage and, unlike Toney, was doing his best to provide for them.

Lucille began dating Phillip, and the two soon married. But before they did, Harrison looked up James Toney. Harrison had played basketball in college, so he knew who Toney was, but the two weren't close friends. When Harrison spoke to Toney, he told him that he planned to treat Shaquille as if he were his own son.

And he did. Harrison became Shaquille's father. To this day, Shaquille O'Neal considers Phil Harrison his father and not James Toney. He even wrote a rap song about how James Toney had abandoned his mother and him. The song is called Biological Didn't Bother.

Harrison soon realized he had to do everything he could to support his family and help them thrive. He wanted to move out of Newark, which was a poor community that didn't provide a good environment for children. Soon after marrying Lucille, Harrison decided to join the army.

Harrison loved the discipline, structure, and security the army provided. He believed that young Shaquille needed the same sort of structure in his life. At times he was very strict with his son, but only because he was determined that Shaquille make something of his life.

Of course, Shaquille was little more than a toddler, so at first many of those lessons went to waste. When Shaquille misbehaved, Harrison would punish Shaquille by sending him to his room. But when Harrison went to work, Shaquille's mother would break down and lift the punishment. She just couldn't stay mad at her son for very long.

As the years passed, Phil Harrison moved up the ranks in the army. The family moved to Bayonne, New Jersey, and soon grew larger. When Shaquille was six years old, his sister Lateefah was born, followed one year later by another sister, Ayesha, and then a year later by his little brother, Jamal.

Shaquille was growing, too, and was much bigger than other children his age. When Lucille took Shaquille on the train to visit relatives, she carried his birth certificate to prove to the conductor that despite his size, Shaquille was still young enough to ride for free. By the time he started school, he was one of the biggest students in his grade. But he was bright, too. When he was little, his mother had read to him from the dictionary. She hoped to give her son a jump start on his education. It may have worked, for Shaquille skipped first grade.

In many ways, Shaquille was a typical boy. He liked to play sports, particularly basketball and football. Even though he was one of the youngest kids in the local youth leagues, he towered over his opponents. His size helped him become a star player on most teams.