Shaquille O’Neal is tall and made full use of this quality during his days on-court. He has a 32-inch vertical, making the word ‘slam dunk’ synonymous with his name. Shaq’s dunks were scary and inimitable. Each play was intimidating, and powerful. No one dared block him – that’s how he made his presence felt. But for him to develop a 32-inch vertical, Shaq spent time and effort every day before heading to bed.

To be a basketball player means to be different. It calls an individual to always put in the extra effort in everything they do. Shaq couldn’t dunk until he reached his senior year. Before his senior year, Shaq used apple boxes to reach the rim.

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When he started dunking, he knew he had to rigorously work on his dunk to set himself apart from the rest.

Shaquille O’Neal and 1000 reps of calf raises

Calf raises add some more power and movement into a jump. So reports state that while playing for Louisiana State University, Shaquille O’Neal performed 1000 reps of calf raises every day before bed.

This helped him increase his vertical leap or his jump by 12 inches. This meant that if Shaq jumped up in the air, then there was no stopping him.

Guarding Shaq was scary

On a podcast, NBA Veteran Richard Jefferson speaks about how scary it was to defend and play against Shaq. He narrated an instance when he attempted to block Shaq’s dunk.

He said, “He would be like, ‘Watch it, little fella. If you put your hand there, I’ll break your wrist.’ If his body (arm), and you try to block a ball, and there’s a rim right there? He’ll f**k yeah, break your wrist.”

In the same podcast, former power-forward, Channing Frye spoke about his experience guarding Shaq. He spoke about a time when Shaq was with the Miami Heat and Frye himself was with the New York Knicks. During the third quarter of the game, Miami was six down and Shaq walked up to Frye.

“He looks at me, and he’s like, ‘Okay, good game little Frye. We gotta win this now.’ And boops and f***s me up for the whole quarter,” Frye said.

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Shaq is yet another example of how the mixture of hard work, insane work ethic, talent, and confidence is required to be a superstar in a league like the NBA. Do you think the league will witness another force like Shaq? Let us know in the comments below.