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About Who Is Shaquille
Product Description NBA champion, sports analyst, and successful businessman Shaquille O'Neal is a lively and entertaining addition to the #1 New York Times Bestselling Series! Shaquille O'Neal discovered his love of basketball while spending time in an afterschool program called the Boys & Girls Club of America. Standing over six feet tall by the time he turned eleven years old, Shaq--as he is affectionately known--continued to practice the game and stunned the country with his phenomenal skills. From leading his high-school team to its first-ever state title to becoming the first pick in the 1992 NBA draft and going on to win four NBA championships, Shaq proved that he could dominate almost any player. But the fifteen-time All Star who played for six teams throughout his nineteen-year NBA career isn't just a force on the court, he is also an actor, television host, musician, and businessman who is always ready to crack a joke or bust a dance move. With such a welcoming personality and immense talent, it is easy to see why Shaquille O'Neal is often considered one of the greatest players in NBA history. About the Author Ellen Labrecque is a former Senior Editor for Sports Illustrated for Kids and the author of over twenty nonfiction books for young readers, including biographies of Jim Thorpe, Kobe Bryant, and Magic Johnson, and a number of Who Was? biographies. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Who Is Shaquille O’Neal? It was February 7, 1993, and the Orlando Magic were playing the Phoenix Suns in a National Basketball Association (NBA) game. The NBA is a men’s professional basketball league that plays in North America. The Magic were only in their fourth season in the NBA. Their game was being broadcast live on national television for the first time in franchise history while a sold--out crowd of over nineteen thousand fans watched the game in the Suns’ America West Arena. Everybody was focused on rookie Shaquille O’Neal, the Magic’s seven--foot--one, three--hundred--pound center. Shaq (pronounced “Shack”) played basketball like a bulldozer. In a game filled with giants, Shaq was still taller and stronger than his opponents. Defenders who got in his way could end up on the floor, or in the third row! “When he gets the ball under the basket, I pray he misses,” said Hakeem Olajuwon, another seven--foot--tall NBA center. “He’s so big and he can’t be stopped.” In the matchup against the Suns, Super Shaq did not disappoint his fans. Less than three minutes into the game, he went up for a thundering two--handed dunk. The “Shaq attack” did not just bring down the rim and the backboard; it also pulled down the entire basket structure—-the rim and net, the six--foot--by--three--foot backboard, and the bar and post the backboard and rim were attached to—-onto the court. Players scattered out of the way to safety. No one had ever seen anything like it. No other player had ever had the strength and power to do something like that. The game had to be delayed for thirty--seven minutes as workers brought in a whole new basket replacement. Shaq stood on the sideline and smiled a giant thousand--watt smile. He’s a serious basketball player, but he knows how to have fun while playing the game, too. “I was a little surprised,” he said later about the mighty dunk. “But when it started coming down, I started running the other way.” Shaq finished the game with twenty points, but the Magic lost the game 121–-105. The score didn’t really matter, though. The Hercules--size dunk announced to the world that twenty--year--old Shaquille O’Neal was Superman in a basketball uniform. He was a star like no other. Chapter 1: An Army Kid Shaquille Rashaun O’Neal was born on March 6, 1972, in Newark, New Jersey. His mother explained that “Shaquille Rashaun” is an Arabic name that means “little warrior.” (As he grew up, Shaquille’s name sometimes got shortened to Shaq by family and friends.) Shaquille was less than eight
