It comes as no surprise to many that 4x NBA champion and Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal was a freak of nature growing up. However, the tales of O’Neal’s unnatural physique trace back to his birth, which is not a fact known to many fans. Regardless, O’Neal addresses the same and more unknown facts about his life and journey to the NBA in his new documentary series, ‘Shaq.’

Last month, Shaquille O’Neal and his team finally announced the much-anticipated release of his documentary. After the release of ‘SHAQ’ in collaboration with HBO, O’Neal joined the long list of NBA legends, who have made a documentary about their careers. The first episode of the four-part series aired earlier this week.

Shaquille O’Neal faced humiliation growing up due to his unnatural size

Shaquille O’Neal dominated the NBA for over a decade. The league had seldom seen a 7-ft feet giant with such fearless fierceness as O’Neal. Apart from utterly humiliating his opponents by dunking on them, O’Neal was also a magician with his footwork on the post. All the above attributes made him one of the greatest ever. However, growing up, his size was more of a bane than a boon.

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At his birth, O’Neal was unnaturally large for a baby. Moreover, as time passed, he kept growing out of proportion with respect to the average kid of age. In the documentary, O’Neal addressed the incident when his mother knocked out a bus driver for humiliating her son for his abnormal height. He recalled, “I see my mother knock out a bus driver once.”

During the 70s, riding a bus at age five or under came free of cost. Lucille O’Neal, a single mother, and Shaq used to take the bus often to make ends meet. In such instances, a young Shaq, about three years of age, would avail a free seat. However, many suspected his age to be more than five due to his abnormal height. Once, a bus driver with conviction in his suspicion approached mother Lucille and said, “If he is 5, he must be r*t*rded or something.” Enraged by the comments, Shaq admitted that his mother knocked the guy out, “And my mama hit him with that bing bing.“

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Coming into the NBA, O’Neal became one of the most sought-after players on the back of his dominance at the amateur level. At the time of his draft, the Big Diesel stood at a towering 7’1″ feet. Moreover, O’Neal also weighed over 300 pounds which skyrocketed his draft stock. The Orlando Magic drafted O’Neal in the 1992 NBA draft as the no.1 overall pick; the rest is history.