Shaquille O’Neal became an icon in the Los Angeles community even before he won his first championship with the Lakers. Both on and off the court, almost everyone in the Los Angeles region knew who Shaquille O’Neal was in his prime days.
Before his third championship with the Lakers in 2002, he joined the LA Port Police as a reserve police officer. He even underwent their training further to become an honorary US deputy marshal in 2005.
In a recent interview with Byron Scott, O’Neal’s former teammate recalled how O’Neal even went as far as stopping his own teammate and pulling him over for a traffic violation, even when both Richmond and O’Neal were getting late for Lakers practice.
He then recalled that Shaq even went as far as seriously considering going undercover as a cop. The 7’1 monster that destroyed his opponents on TV every second night wanted to go undercover, hoping that no one would recognize him. That’s hilarious to think about.
“I can remember we used to be on the plane, and you know Jerome? And we are sitting on the team plane. I remember like it was yesterday. We’re all sitting on the plane, and Shaq, you know, was talking about, ‘Yeah, man. I want to really do undercover.’ The whole plane started laughing.”
“Like dog, what are you talking about? You’re going to be– how are you going to do undercover? People are going to recognize you, right? ‘No, nobody recognizes me.’ Come on, man. You know where that goes. Come on. Everybody can recognize Shaq. He wants to be undercover. Oh man, Shaq is hilarious.”
Richmond, the six-time NBA All-Star, won his first NBA championship with Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant in 2002. He averaged only 4.1 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 0.9 assists per game at that point in his career. He acknowledged that the sole reason that he was motivated to join the Lakers was to join forces with the duo of Kobe Bryant and O’Neal, which could get him a championship as well, and they eventually did.
While the L.A. community recognizes that O’Neal is an iconic figure for them, even now, as an accomplished businessman and philanthropist. But it is very hard to imagine that Shaquille O’Neal would not be made on the first day itself if he ever goes undercover as a cop.
O’Neal also works for the benefit and welfare of children in the community now, with his financial literacy programs, philanthropic contributions, and a lot of other projects of the Shaquille O’Neal Foundation. As hilarious as O’Neal is with his teammates, he is very serious about giving back to the community that arguably made him who he is today.
