Shaquille O’Neal had a stellar college career at Louisiana State University in the early 1990s, but he could very well have ended up at the University of North Carolina instead. On the latest episode of The Big Podcast with Shaq, O’Neal revealed he didn’t go to UNC because of Rick Fox.
“So I went to North Carolina… I didn’t like Rick Fox,” O’Neal said. “… He took me to one of those parties, I’m like, all the girls went to him.”
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Well, I certainly wouldn’t blame anyone for being interested in Fox. To go with being a talented basketball player, he was quite a good-looking individual as well. He would end up getting roles in various films and television shows as the years went by, and even someone like O’Neal wouldn’t have had much luck getting the ladies off of him.
Kirk Cousins, who was the guest for this episode, joked that Fox’s good looks cost former UNC head coach Dean Smith three titles. In the three years that O’Neal was in college, UNC was eliminated in the Sweet 16 twice and in the Final Four once. They might have gone all the way with the big man.
Later on, O’Neal also revealed why he turned down some other colleges. He didn’t want to go to NC State because Charles Shackleford played for them. He was the original “Shaq” and O’Neal didn’t want to go to the same college. Then he went to Illinois, but the area was too cold for him.
O’Neal then turned down Notre Dame, after which he decided LSU was where he wanted to be. He wouldn’t end up having a team success during his time there, as the farthest the team went in the NCAA tournament in those three years was the second round. O’Neal certainly made up for that lack of team success by winning four titles in the NBA.
Shaquille O’Neal Called Rick Fox His Favorite Teammate
While O’Neal managed to avoid playing alongside Fox in college, the two would end up being teammates in the NBA. The experience certainly went a lot better than he could have imagined, as O’Neal revealed his favorite teammate was Rick Fox.
“My favorite guy to play with was Rick Fox. Certain games, ‘Hey man, I need you to be in the corner, hit that shot.’ Other games you not getting a shot but I need to stop Stojakovic, I need you to stay in front of Penny Hardaway and these guys, and he was able to adjust.”
Fox signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in free agency in 1997, just a year after O’Neal. They would end up winning three championships together, three-peating from 2000 to 2002.
While O’Neal was the star who won Finals MVP in all three of their triumphs, Fox was that role player who did whatever the team asked him to. As a Laker, he averaged 8.7 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 0.9 steals, and 0.3 blocks per game. He was a starter for much of his time with the franchise, which ended in 2004.
The Lakers traded him back to the Boston Celtics, who had drafted Fox in 1991, but he decided to retire instead of playing for them again. O’Neal, meanwhile, would be traded to the Miami Heat in 2004 and would win his fourth and final title in 2006.
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