DALLAS — The All-Star weekend in Cleveland that kindled much reflection for Shaquille O’Neal spilled over, to his apparent surprise, during his whirlwind two-day visit to North Texas this week.
The whirlwind part wasn’t the surprise. Everywhere he goes, after all, his gregarious 7-foot-1 presence creates a clamor of awe and excitement.
Such was the case when he arrived Wednesday at the Hyatt Regency as one of the featured speakers, along with former Mavericks coach Avery Johnson, for the St. Phillip’s School & Community Center’s Destiny Award luncheon.
The event raised $1.2 million for St. Phillip’s educational and social services and O’Neal’s Shaqnificence radiated from start to finish, though he experienced a pair of nostalgic moments.
The first was when he entered the hotel and realized that one of the security guards was the only Texas high school player “who gave me fits.” Tyrone Washington was the 6-6 star of Clarksville High, the team O’Neal’s Cole Cougars defeated, 66-60, for the 1989 Class 3A state championship.
The other occurred when a Dallas Morning News reporter showed O’Neal a yellowed newspaper clipping of the Dec. 16, 1987, story he’d written about 15-year-old, 6-8 junior O’Neal and the Cougars.
OK, full disclosure, the reporter was yours truly and the story was published in The San Antonio Light, which ceased to exist in January 1993.
There is no way to verify this, but it perhaps was the first newspaper story written about O’Neal. Earlier that year his stepfather, Sergeant Phillip Harrison, had been re-stationed from Fulda, Germany, to San Antonio’s Fort Sam Houston.
O’Neal opened the clipping in his massive fingers and marveled at the photo of his former self.
“Six-eight? That’s awesome,” he said, smiling.
I asked O’Neal why he was so emotional during his several-minute monologue in TNT’s pregame coverage of Sunday’s All-Star Game — in which he was honored as one of the greatest 76 players in NBA history, as part of the league’s 75-season anniversary celebration.
“I couldn’t believe I was there,” he said. Then he pointed at the 34-year-old newspaper clipping. “Because a couple months before that article, I was a terrible player. And people would remind me of it.
“See, I didn’t grow up playing against kids. I grew up playing against young men at the gym, which I think turned out to be an advantage for me.”
Through the decades, as O’Neal morphed into a larger-than-life basketball superstar and pop culture figure, I’ve occasionally reminded him of our San Antonio connection. The first time I recall doing so was during the 1995 NBA Finals between O’Neal’s Orlando Magic and Houston.
It wasn’t until a few years ago, though, that I dug the 1987 clipping out of a box in my attic. A few memories of that year, my last as a high school beat writer before moving up to cover the Southwest Conference, remain vivid.
That season’s most notable high school basketball star was guard Tony Terrell, who averaged 34 points in leading East Central to the state tournament.
Early in that season, though, word rapidly spread about Cole and its 6-8 transfer. Ten of Cole’s 12 players were on the football team, so its basketball season started late. The Monday after football season ended, Cole held its first basketball practice from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and played its first game at 5 p.m.
Cole played its first eight opponents in 10 days and it was during that time that I attended a game and watched O’Neal, in sheer size a man among boys. I recall Harrison coming out of the stands and telling Shaquille to tuck in his jersey.
After the game, Harrison expressed concern about my request to interview Shaquille, citing his age, but ultimately O’Neal and I sat for maybe 15 minutes in coach Dave Madura’s office. Young O’Neal’s soft-spoken answers included many “Yes, sirs” and “No, sirs.”
“I was thinking about it during football season,” said O’Neal, who at the time was averaging 19.1 points and 14 rebounds, “all you have to do is back it up on the court: If you say you can win state, all you can do is try.”
It wasn’t hard to imagine O’Neal playing major college basketball. But a future in which he would win four NBA titles and become a 15-time All-Star and appear in movies and be a TV pitch man for Papa John’s, Icy Hot, Burger King and General Insurance? You gotta be kidding.
During our brief catch-up Wednesday, O’Neal recalled what others were saying about him before his first season at Cole.
“’Terrible. Might as well join the Army’... As I read your articles, there’s as a lot of greater players that had far more success in high school than I did. Tony Terrell was my favorite. Remember him? And Bo Outlaw. I was just trying to catch those guys.
“And then [people said] ‘Going to a small school, you won’t get publicity, you won’t get notoriety.’ And then people like you would help because I would see my name in the paper and then I would start to believe that I am somebody and then all of a sudden things my parents was telling me, it just trickled down from there.
“So, basically I never believed the naysayers. Even to this day I never believed the naysayers. Every dream that I dreamed for has come true.”
O’Neal certainly didn’t need any sportswriters’ help in leading Cole to a 68-1 record during his two seasons. Or in achieving everything he’s done since. But at least this sportswriter didn’t completely whiff when on Dec. 16, 1987, he wrote:
“While O’Neal still isn’t completely polished, he is fundamentally sound. And, unlike many big, young players, he has good hands. He leads the Cougars with 31 steals.”
I’m not sure what compelled me to dig out that old clipping, but now I’m glad I did. It’s anything but Smithsonian-worthy, but for a few minutes Wednesday it was as if I’d handed O’Neal a time capsule.
The biggest jolt, though? I just realized Shaq turns 50 in two weeks.
