The Jordan Harbinger Show - 691: Shaquille O’Neal | Circling Back on Flat Earth Theory

Episode Date: June 30, 2022

Shaquille O'Neal (@SHAQ) has been retired from basketball for years, but he’s still got his irons in plenty of fires. Here, we’ll discuss everything from superheroes to law enforcement to business to sports to podcasting to — yes — the Flat Earth Theory. [Note: This is a previously broadcast episode from the vault that we felt deserved a fresh pass through your earholes!] What We Discuss with Shaquille O'Neal: The real-world experience Shaq endured preparing for a political race in 2020. How Shaq assembled what he calls The Panel to help manage not only his career but all his important life decisions — and how you can do the same. Why Shaq doesn’t consider himself a celebrity (and why that still isn’t a good reason to bug him in the middle of dinner). How Shaq manages his emotions so he stays non-reactive on and off the court. Does Shaq really believe in the Flat Earth Theory? And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/691 Sign up for Six-Minute Networking -- our free networking and relationship development mini course -- at jordanharbinger.com/course! Miss the show we did with the late and sorely missed Kobe Bryant — basketball legend, family man, and multimedia mogul? Catch up here with episode 249: Kobe Bryant | Dissecting the Mamba Mentality! Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Coming up next on the Jordan Harbinger Show. I've won on every level except college. So as a youngster, when I used to play and win, he would let me celebrate the trophy one day. I come home out of school and be gone, and he was the type you never asked him, where's the trophy at? So I finally asked him when I got older,

and he said, I did it because I never want you to be satisfied. I want you to always want more as a player. So even as a youngster, when I was a player and I wasn't that good, that wasn't stopping me because I knew that, because of my work ethic, I was going to be somebody. Welcome to the show. I'm Jordan Harbinger. On the Jordan Harbinger show, we decode the stories, secrets and skills are the world's most fascinating people. We have in-depth conversations with scientists and entrepreneurs, spies

and psychologists, even the occasional organized crime figure war correspondent to money laundering experts or neuroscientist. Each episode turns our guest's wisdom into practical advice that you can use to build a deeper understanding of how the world works and become a better thinker. If you're new to the show or you want to tell your friends about it, and thank you for doing that, I suggest our episode starter packs. These are collections of some of our favorite episodes, organized by topic. I'll help new listeners get a taste of what we do here on the show. Topics like disinformation and cyber warfare, persuasion and influence, China, North Korea, scams and conspiracies, crime and cults, and more.

Just visit jordanharbinger.com slash start or search for us in your Spotify app to get started. All right, everybody, today, another one from the vault. We're talking with the big Aristotle, the hobo master, the diesel, Shaqfoo, big daddy, Superman, the big agave, the big cactus, the big Shaktus, the big Galactus, Wilk Chamberneasy, the big Baryshnikov, the big shamrock, big leprechaun, shakovych, the big conductor. All right, we're talking with Shaquille O'Neal. I was curious how people at his level make important decisions. Turns out he's assembled a panel to help him manage not only his career, but all of his

important life decisions and strategy direction. We're going to explore how you can do the same. Also, how Shaq manages his emotions so he stays non-reactive both on and off the court. And life is one of the most visible people on the planet. I mean, you really can't miss Shaq even in a giant crowd. And what's that like, living day to day, right? Hope you all enjoy this episode from The Vault with Shaquille O'Neal. You're a Marvel fan then, I'm guessing?

Superman. Superman. Yeah, like growing up as a medium, juvenile delinquent, always on punishment. He's had the opportunity to watch TV and just see superheroes and get entrenched inside the stories that they were telling. Superman was always won. Six million dollar man was another one.

I always wanted to be him. Hulk was another one. I got in trouble for being a Hulk one time. One time we saw a car that we thought was abandoned, but it wasn't. It was just stolen. It was just sitting there. So me and my friend, I play the Hulk, and I ripped out the mirrors. I just ripped out the doors.

I ripped off everything. I got in a really big trouble for that one. How did they know it was you that did all the damage instead of the person who stole the car? Because everybody was out there. Oh, everybody's on. And I was going, and I took a brick and butts in windows.

And then when the guy found his car, I was like, who did this? It was like, Shaquille O'Neill, he did it. And he came right to my house. You're like, but some other guy, he scratched up your lock really good when he stole the car. Exactly.

Yeah. So Marvel and Superman appealed you. It seems weird punishment. to put you in a place where you can watch TV and read comics and hang out and watch $6 million, man. You accomplished that goal. You got a lot more than $6 million out of it. It actually changed my life. It helped me put down on paper what I wanted to become. So just say I'm flicking the channels and I see L.O. Koujet. I'm going to be a rapper. Say, flick the channel again, I see a guy doing a great sitcom. I want to be an actor.

Then, of course, I'm a sports guy. I want to be Frank O'Harris, the Immaculate Conception. I want to be Reggie Jackson hit a home run. So it enabled me to put down on paper all these things I wanted to be. And then my father taught me the way and said, okay, you want to be all these things? This is how you do it? Go out and get it done. I've accomplished everything that I set my mind to. So wait, you wrote down all your goals when you were younger?

Yes. My father made me right from A to C what I wanted to be. So A was a basketball player. B was a basketball player. I actually got in trouble for that. You just put basketball player for all the 25. No, no. And then C was a cop.

And then D was a detective, E was an entrepreneur, and F was a fireman. So like I just did a whole bunch of things that I thought I wanted to do. And you've gone through and try to knock all that stuff off the bucket list? Yes. Because I made a list of things that you were doing before,

but I figured I would ask now because it seems like there's a lot of things that you've done. I mean, why law enforcement? What's going on there? Why that? Two guys that are on my panel. What I mean by my panel. My panel is a group of five men and women,

consists of a total of five, but men and women. Two of the guys that are on my panel are my uncles from my law enforcement. My panel consists of Lucille O'Neill, Mike Parris, Jerome Crawford, Dale Brown, and Perry Rogers. That's my panel. They're the only ones that can call me and check me, and I know not to say anything back.

Because I know they love me and they care for me. And, you know, when you respect somebody, you see, a lot of people in my position think they know it all. They don't have anybody that can respect. I have a panel. It's like me being a president, but I answer to Congress. So that's my panel. But two guys on the panel are my uncles in their law enforcement officer. So I said to myself one day, and, you know, this was on my list as a youngster.

I said, one day I want to be a cop. But I don't think I, you know, with me being shack, me being a cop, probably wouldn't be too good. But I think I can lead a force. I want to run for sheriff. So when I started pursuing that here in Los Angeles, like a lot of people would give me badges. And I was like, you know what, if you give me a badge, when I go out on the street, the officer's not going to respect me.

So I made them put me through two different police academies. Sheriff Leroy-Bock, I was the sheriff at the time. He approved it, and I had to go through two different academies. And I became a full-fledged reserve officer, level one. Level three is security guard status. Level two is you have to ride with another officer. level one, you can ride by yourself. You have full-fledged police officer duties.

And I studied to a level one. And I did that because when I do run for sheriff, I know I could probably get a lot of votes just from being checked. Sure. But I really want my people that's working for me to know and understand. I know my laws. I know what you go through. I know what it takes.

I want them to know and understand that. And I've been a lot of places around the country with a lot of police officers And it's like, you know, we really, really appreciate it. Because I appreciate them, you know. Teachers and police officers are definitely underpaid. Yeah, my mom was a teacher. So I heard all about that. Yeah, they're underpaid.

Yeah. I mean, well, you're underpaid for a guy. You're taking a dollar a year, right? Yep, dollar a year. I guess. You know what's crazy? They tax that. Of course, yeah.

So you get. 46 cents. Really? Oh, my God. Because the bracket. Yeah, that makes sense. What have you learned on the job that you've been able to use? Or what did you learn on the team anyway, maybe that you've been able to use as a police

officer, like de-escalation techniques and get along with people and stuff like that? Well, I always come in at zero. A lot of times when you're dealing with people, you just listen first instead of react. A lot of situations are dangerous, so you have to come in high, but a lot of situations where it's just people there talking and arguing, you just try to have to just try to de-escalate the situation, you know how. The fortunate thing for me is when I show up, people just calm down automatically. So that's a fortunate thing for me.

For me, it was just about learning it, mastering it. So when I do run for sheriff, the guys know I'm not just a celebrity figure. Right. And I want to badge and a gun. So I've been, let's see, I went to L.A. Academy, did a Florida Academy, did a Phoenix Academy, getting ready to go through a Georgia Academy. Because I plan on running for Sheriff in either Georgia or Florida in 2020. Wow.

I had a dream that I saw a bunch of stickers on the cars, Shaq's Vision for 2020. Shaq for Sheriff 2020. Nice. So you're actually going to run for. Ralph is. I'm thinking about it. Yeah, I'm really thinking about it. And what sort of policy you think he'll put in place as the elected sheriff?

It'll be paramilitary. Marshal wall all around? No, not much about it. I hope not. Just, you know, discipline. It's a friend of mine in Clayton County, Sheriff Victor Hill. And I met him a couple months ago. He has the cleanest, most disciplined jail I've ever seen in my life.

I'm definitely going to get to know him a little better, study his tactics. because that's how I grew up and teaches the young men and women that are in there teaches them have to be responsible, teaches them honor. And no, he doesn't a polite way.

There's nothing crazy in there, but it's just somewhat like his floors were shining and the pods and the cells, the clothes were folded. And when he walks in, the guy standing at attention and a salute, it was really awesome to see. Because I've been to jails

where people, you know, seven to eight guys in cell and they're fighting and doing this and doing that, but his jail was very disciplined. So I'm definitely going to be studying his techniques. I think a lot of people would definitely vote for you because of the celebrity, but it's good that you're trying to earn the same respect as the other officers. Otherwise, you end up with the same problem that people have.

Now, we have a lack of real authority. What happens when people show up to, or when you show up to a call with other people there? I mean, did they just go, holy crap, a check. Are there people who don't know who you are? And they're just like, dang, that's a big cop. Went first when I was on patrol in L.A., you know, got to be sort of like a TV sitcom. Like, I'd pull up in my suit and everybody. It was that shack?

And you see guys across the street and then calling on the phone. And I got to promote the detective. So a lot of time when I show up at the detective, people think it's a joke or not. So what I started doing was, as a detective, when we go on four or five detectives, I would come in last. I let all the real cops go on first, let everybody know what's going on. So everybody knows it's a serious moment. and then I would come in. Because if I come in first,

people, Shaq, hello, hey, I saw you have to get to me. Where's the cameras? Yes, exactly. How often do you hear comments about your height? And I assume all the time, right? All the time. I learn at our early age,

not to take things so seriously. Yeah? I hear jokes. How's the weather up there? I hear it all. I hear it all. I'm glad I didn't start with that. And I'm at the point in my life now.

I've actually been here a long time. Nothing can really hurt my feelings. I think the times we're living in, people are very sensitive. Like, I don't know you, but I'm sure if we just have a good conversation. And again, when I have a conversation, we don't have to agree on everything. Yeah. I respect you, you respect me.

I guarantee we have something in common. See, a lot of people these days, you think a certain way and you try to influence me to think that way. The world wasn't built like that. Every fingerprint is different. Every DNA is different. And everybody's opinion is different. And a lot of times, we react to people's opinions without listening. True story.

It's a guy, fashion guy, dresses kind of knife. Name is Jimmy Goldstein, I think it's his name. He told me one day during the game, I hate you. What? Oh, that's rude. Yeah, no, he said, I hate you. So I'm boom, boom, boom. But I was seeing him at all the parties with us, boom, boom, boom.

So finally I said, he's a small guy. So usually when a guy said, I hate you, I want, okay, well, I hate you too. Let's fight about him. He's a real skinny guy. So I asked him, I said, why do you hate me? He said, because you're so dominant, it's unfair. I want to see you lose. So rather than reacting of what he said, by me having a conversation, I understood that.

I can understand. You're a fan. You want your team to win. But you're going up against this guy, Shaq, that's throwing people around. I can understand the hatred. So that was a valuable lesson for me because, like, when people say something, my reaction button is off. My intelligence button is on. Okay, what did you say?

What do you mean? And I analyze it. And I analyze it in a nice way before I react. How do you do that, especially when you, did you do that? when you were 22, 23 years ago? No, no. When I was 22, 23, I tried to answer everybody's criticism. And I realized that it's more than a full-time job.

It becomes stressful. You start getting anxiety. And then I realized that you can't please everyone. You know, this is the same thing I tell my children now. So you see your hands, five fingers on your head. Try to impress the five most important people in your life. That's my panel. So as long as they're happy, I'm happy.

Like whenever I start doing something crazy, one, two, three, four, five will let me know and then I have to switch it back up. How did you pick the panel? I mean, one is your mother. One is my mother. Two of my uncles, they always kept me out of trouble. Yeah. And Perry is my agent, business manager. Been out for a long time.

And Perry is brutally honest. He's not one of those K-Y-A-type agents. I don't know if I can say kiss your ass on your podcast. Yeah, you can. Yeah, he's not one of those agents. So, like, he'll tell you, like, what you said last night was on. on call for, boom, boom, boom. He's very, very intelligent.

He's a lawyer. You know, lawyers think very different. So, you know, he wants the best for me, and it's something that I appreciate and respect. Crazy thing about Perry, we're similar ages. So, like, he's probably the youngest guy out of panel. He's around my age, but very intelligent. Come from very intelligent family.

Father was a brilliant business man. Mother was a brilliant businesswoman. You know, when you respect people, you listen to them, especially people that help you get to where. you are. How did you pick, when did you pick that panel, I should say, because you, did you pick it before your career started and everything? Never. Never. I had to go through a lot of trials and tribulations before I figured all this stuff out. You know, experience is the best teacher. And, you know, I have my basic core principles. Stay true to myself. Have fun. Never take

advantage of people. Never disrespect people. And then as I start getting older, I start adding more business, you know, practical things inside that. at Forma, and then I realized a movie that changed my life was the fan, Robert De Niro and Wesley Snipes. Robert De Niro asked Wesley. He said, hi, you're a great player. You do this, you do that, boom, boom, boom, boom. Wesley Snipes said, I don't care. So I had to stop caring, not caring to the sense to where it would, you know, affect my profession, but just stop caring about what people say. Once I started doing that, blossomed. Nice. So you actually went through a phase where you just went.

It doesn't matter. Yeah, I care about it. Like, Shaq, the only thing Shaq can do is dunk. You can't shoot jumpers. So the next game I go, three for 25 trying to shoot jumpers. Oh, man. So you're just always challenging yourself to figure out. Always.

And you've been successful for a long time. How come you didn't fall into those same traps that a lot of other athletes did? Is it the panel? Was that early enough? And before the panel, a lot of children don't do this today. But when I see tragic stories, I don't want to go that right. One tragic story when Lynn Baez passed away from using cocaine, my father came in the house furious.

Furious. If you ever do this, I'll kill you. You ain't going to have time on an overdose. I'll kill you. So I always say, you know what? No drugs for me. One time, true story in Germany, West Germany. Friends, this is around, you know, when you're a teenager and you get to go to parties.

Sure. You know, the parents are sleeping when you come home. All the friends were into beer drinking. They had to drink some beer. So one night, snowstorm. Because I lived in Wild Flick in the schools and full of those. So it was about a 50-minute ride. So one time we'd go to the dance and, you know, the guys had a beer.

And, you know, one of the guys had his license. Dad was out of town. He took his car. He said, hey, this is right home. And the guys was drinking. And I was like, you know what? You know, I heard a lot of stories about what happened. And tragic ending, they died.

Oh, my gosh. Wow. So that could have been you. Yeah, it could have been me. So, like, a lot of things. I've seen before they happen, and I don't want to go down that rope. My father always come in and say,

all right, you had 30 points, but what are you going to do when you hurt your knee? Because it's an astonishing percentage of athletes that after they're done playing, they have nothing, and we didn't want to be part of that statistic. Yeah, 60% are broke, I think, within five years of retirement or something like that. Yeah.

It's really sad. I mean, you don't have that problem. You're still working, probably because you got six kids. You got to work. You can't have retired. Definitely got to work. How did you deal with not only becoming the most valuable player or visible player in the league, but also a celebrity at the same time? I mean, a lot of guys are going through the same visibility role, but you had all kinds of things going.

How come it didn't get out of control? I think it just never got out of control because even to this day, I don't consider myself a celebrity. My story is like a rocky story. Guy from the neighborhood that's loved and respected in the neighborhood. had an opportunity to do something, do something for a community or do something for a state or do something for a nation. That's my story. My story is not superstar, entourage, 50 agents, 100 diamond chains. That's my story as a regular guy. See me, I'm in a car by myself today. I'm in L.A. by myself. I go to a lot of cities. I go to countries by myself. I'm going to

I said to myself a superstar. And when people come up to me, especially children, I always got to take care of children. I just try to accommodate them, unless I'm eating. When I'm in the middle of the mill, I'm rather than be interrupted. But if I'm out and I see a little baby and they want my autograph, of course, I always oblige them. But I think what's made me relevant in all these situations is that I don't consider myself

a superstar. I'm just a regular guy from the neighborhood that did something in Stalingham, I won three champions in LA and won in Miami. You know, he was a guy. He was always in trouble. He was a juvenile to Lincoln. We knew he could be somebody. That's more of my story.

Yeah, that's great, especially if you're not thinking of yourself as somebody extra special all the time. No, I don't do that. It manages the expectations pretty well, I think, too. And you've always approached even basketball as a business. And so was your panel advising you on that? And I'm sticking with the panel thing because I think it's such a great idea. And most people are not doing this.

Clearly the athletes that are going broke are not doing this. When I first came in, I was upset before it came in because I got an F in marketing. Marketing teacher, LSU said, give me something, product, something that you can see sold in the future. Not now, 2000, all that. So you know me, I came with Shaq hats, shack shoes, shack shirts. And he embarrassed me in class.

He said, oh, I see you put a lot of originality in this and gave me an F in front of everybody. And I asked him, so what did you do? He said, if you look at the nature of a market, marketing and NBA. Big guys never sell. I was like, you know what? Don't sell. So when I first got in, you know, you hear a lot of stories that the number one pick and name whatever he wants. So when I first got in, I was like, you know, let me try this theory. I want this. I want this. I want to be able to have creative control of all my commercials. So I'm not doing it. So I'm an agent at the time, he got it done. So every commercial that we shot, my thought process is, okay, this is how I want

people to see me. This is the message I want to send. And at the end of all these commercials, I want to add a fun aspect to it. And I derived at that mentality because I'm looking at all the commercials. Like, big guys don't sell. My favorite commercial was the Spuds McKenzie commercials. Never talked. Yeah. Dog never said anything. But what, look, why did this dog have shirts, mugs, hats, everything, book bags? Because he always added a fun element in his commercial. So I was like, you know what? Every commercial I'm doing has got to have a fun element in it.

Product is a product, but after that I'm going to give them like this in the Buick or a man up or, you know, something. You're listening to the Jordan Harbinger show with our guest, Shaquille O'Neal. We'll be right back. Hey, if you're wondering how I managed to book

all these amazing folks on the show, it is because of my network and you don't get shack for an hour without a good network. I'm teaching you how to build your network for free over at Jordan Harbinger.com slash course. This course is about

improving your networking and connection skills, of course, but it's also about inspiring others to develop a personal and professional relationship with you. It'll make you a better networker, a better connector, and most importantly, a better thinker. That's jordanharbinger.com slash course. And by the way, most of the guests on our show subscribe and or contribute to that course. Come join us. You'll be in smart company where you belong. Now, back to Shaquille O'Neal. How are you going to teach your kids some of the same values that you had with your panel growing up. I mean, do your kids have panels and stuff like that? They don't have panels.

I try to do lead by example. I try to teach him the same life lessons that I was taught. Yesterday, we're at the mall. My son said, I want to get some joints. I said, well, you're going to have to donate Tim Perry of your old shoes. I already did that. I said, well, you need to prove with me. And he actually did.

Him and my other son, they went down to the Goodwill, and they just donated their stuff. And we used to do that as a young son. Like my father, we used to go to Goodwill and pick up some stuff and take it to all the, you know, the other true families that were lesser fortunate. My father always love homeless people. I love homeless people. My grandmother was a nurse, so my mother and I started a foundation. We've sent over 100 nurses to college, four-year scholarship.

So I just try to lead by example. And I don't put pressure on them. Like, I got a couple of sons that play by. We don't even talk basketball. It's not important to me. What's important to me that they build what I started.

One of my favorite nepotism stories is Nick and Mickey Erison. So an article comes out in the paper that Nick Erison's grandmother left him hunting 200 million. This guy's 19, went to college to do and graduate it. So he comes back and join the team.

It's a guy in there worth $200 million dollars cleaning up the locker room. And I'm looking, I'm like, this kids were two, you should be up hanging out with his dad. Because here, that's what you see. Right, sure. You see a lot of kids that hanging out with dad and dad does everything for him. But you had a kid worth $200 million.

This documented his grandmother left him $150 million plus 20% of the team. Wow. He's down in the locker room cleaning up. Next year, you see him in marketing. And then you see him doing, you see him outside, boom, boom, boom, hand in our flyers. And then finally about five, six years, his father, And I think he went to school and graduated and learned the business from the bottom. Then his father said, okay, boom.

And I think he made him vice president. That's one of my favorite nepotism stories. And I have to do the same thing, you know, rather than just give it to them. Like I tell my kids all the time, you get no degrees, then you get none of my cheese. That's my slogan around my house. No degrees, no cheese. They're all looking forward to college then. Yeah, yeah, they got to be.

You mentioned shoes earlier. You got the biggest pair of Tom's shoes that. I've ever seen, and I thought, all right, where do you get shoes that big? You have to have things custom made. I fell in love with Tom about three years ago. See people wearing, I'm like, what is that? And his story is incredible. You buy a pair or donate a pair.

Love that story. So every person that I, how can I get the time? They give me a number. Didn't work. Give me a number. Didn't work. But finally, about two years later, I've seen the owner of Tom, him and his wife. We met him once in Westwood.

And I said, listen, I love your product. How can I get a pair? He's like, Shaq, be honest with you. We don't have the 22 mold. I can't slow production down to make one shoe. And I said, well, what's a good production day? He said about a thousand pair. So we'll make me a thousand pair then.

So I got a thousand pair that I ordered. I'm only into my first hundred. And we're in discussions. We want to go to like one of these third world countries and, you know, hand out some shoes. And find people with huge feet who need shoes. No, not huge feet, just whoever. Kids, old ladies, babies, yeah.

Yeah, Tombs is the right company to do that with, that's for sure. It sounds like in the past you've been competitive with pretty much everything, not just basketball. I read an article online. I think it might have been on Reddit, so articles using it loosely. But yeah, the biggest bed in the world, and then someone challenged you and said, no, I think my bed's bigger, so you doubled the size of your bed? Yes, that's true. I'm very competitive.

You know, it's all about having fun. Yeah. It's all about having fun. I'm the doctor, the ambassador, the emperor, the emperor. the emperor of fun. Nobody has more fun than me. And our fun is genuine. It's not, I've been,

I've been a class clown since elementary school. The fun that I'm having now, I used to get in trouble for as a youngster. But it's called having a sense of humor. I don't take myself too seriously. And, you know, it's just interacting with people. And some guy, he tried to make a bed, then I just had to double my bed.

And I have more space. So if I have to make my whole room a bed, I will. That's why they call it a bedroom, right? Exactly. You've had some beefs in the past from that competitive spirit. When there's a conflict on a team, how do you address that and then move towards a goal? It's never beefs. My whole concept was it could only be one leader.

And you can't be a good leader if your followers don't trust and respect you, right? So I always had to make sure I was doing everything right before I challenge anybody. And then a lot of times, like for example, the Kobe situation, I knew Kobe could take it. and I knew that if you upset him, he's sort of like me. He'll try to prove you wrong. The crazy thing about is people always say, oh, well, don't you wish you and Kobe could have worked out? We did work out.

It went three out of four. Yeah. Like, I don't understand. Like, I don't understand your question. It'll be a better story if we play together for eight years and have no championships. Would you like that story better? No, I don't think so. It would be a better story.

But the key word is respect. Like, me and you could have a respectful disagreement. I'm not going to beat you up. Like, I was never going to beat him up. I'm like, do this, do that. No, you do it, and we have a conversation, and then you just move up. Do you regret it all hazing Yao Ming so hard and stuff like that? I wasn't hazing them.

I kind of got in trouble for doing something one time, but I wasn't making fun of him. As a youngster, that's what we saw. Sure. We saw. Right. The Chinese, the Mandarin Chinese, yeah. I was just trying to be cute and cool, and somebody took it. You're racist now.

Yeah, I'm like, what are you talking like? but there's not a racist bone in my body. He didn't seem to mind. Everybody else cared, except for him. Where I'm from, every Saturday we watch Chinese dinner. And they're making fun. It's actually showing respect. You want to fight, like.

The Kung Fu movies? That's why I came up with the name Shaq Fu. I used to be in the house practicing that stuff, and like I would get a white towel, act like I had a white beer. I love Chinese people. So, you know, sometimes you have to be careful. And, you know, I understand, like, you know, Some people are very, very sensitive, and you just have to be careful with how you were things sometimes.

You'd just mention that you're the, you could not get in Hakeem's head. Why do you think that is? Why could you not get in his head? I think I showed him too much respect. We had the same agent at one time, and he was just a nice guy, and I didn't want to hurt my friend. Gotcha. And he kind of set me up because during the regular season, I was having my way with him. So when we got to the finals that year in Orlando, I was real arrogant.

We had 10 days off. We was doing things all wrong. We were flying to a line of partying, flying. Like, it was out of control. We had a mini parade because we thought he was going to win, because I thought he was going to win it. And then he just turned that switch on, man. I couldn't get him to turn off.

So it seems like he didn't have any Hakeem Fu or anything. You were just nicer to him. I was just nice to him. Usually a guy like that, I would first play the game, try to commit an offensive foul. That was my thing. Like, I take three steps to the middle and swing the elbow around. If your face is there, you get hit.

Three things are going to happen. I'm either the score. I'm either miss or the rough-cun-court offensive foul every time. So the first play of the game, I'm letting you know that I'm coming with nothing but for it. So if your face is in a way, it's not my problem. But I didn't do that with him. With him, I was real finesse and trying to be cool and cute and it costing. But also taught me a valuable lesson.

I said to myself, if I ever make it back to the finals again, I'm going to throw a dominant performance so dominant, it'll guarantee a win. And I think that's why I got three finals MVPs because I didn't want to have that feeling of letting everybody down, the panel, the family, the kids, the city. Because when you win, you get the praise.

But when you lose, get the finger. And I understand that. And I respect that. And I accept that. How do you turn up the heat and get more physically aggressive on the court or more aggressive in the game without getting angry

or losing your shit a little bit? Because NBA stands for nothing but actors. In real life, I'm a nice guy. Yeah. I'm Terminator Body with a Bambi heart. So on the court, this is my persona. I'm a shack. Not only that, I'm trying to win.

17,000 fans in here are relying on me. I got kids relying on me. I got means of fans relying on me. I got kids that want to be like me. I'm going to do the same thing for them that Dr. Jay did for me. Dr. Jay changed my life. Dr. Jay was the guy that said, okay, now I know what I want to be when I grow up. I had some good grades, and my father took me to a game.

We're way up in Madison Square Garden, probably the top row. Boring game, Dr. Jay Gold, baseball, now and throw it down, the whole arena stands out. It actually scared me because I thought something was happening. And I look at my dad, I was like, I know what I want to be when I grew up, dad. I want to be down there. He's like, well, this is what you got to do, son. And I want to be that, that person to a kid that's, you know, trying to do something with his life now. So you and your dad outlined a plan to get all the way to the NBA?

Yes, we did. How did that look back then? I mean, it seems like a lot of people do that now, but there's too much white space where you kind of don't really know what goes in between. You taught me how to play the right way. Tell me how to work hard. Told me to expect not being as good as I wanted to be in the early, but that's okay to keep working. Tell me to take criticism and use it as motivation and tell me to compete at a high level. I've won on every level except college.

Little League, AAU, Olympics, Junior Olympics, won on every level except college. So as a youngster, when I used to play and win, he would let me celebrate the trophy one day. I'd come home out of school and be gone. And he was the type you never asked him, where's the trophy in?

So I finally asked him when I got older, and he said, I did it because I never want you to be satisfied. I want you to always want more as a player. So even as a youngster, when I was a player and I wasn't that good, that wasn't stopping me. because I knew that because of my work ethic, I was going to be somebody. And with him being a drill sergeant, I would have to get up at 5.30 with him and his troops to go through the course first, and I'd be right behind him.

He was literally a drill sergeant. Yes. And he made you get up early with all the troops and go work out? And I had to fold the bed, and he dropped a quarter on it, and the pillows had to be creased, all that stuff. If not, he missed up and I'd have to do it again. He'd be like, you only got five minutes. If you don't get it done in five minutes, you're going to be on that track double time. Move it, move it, move it.

Yeah, best thing happened to me. Your dad was pretty good at balancing being a nurturing, caring father with being a real hard-ass from the sound of it. No, he was hard-ass 70% of the time. Yeah? Military life, family, marriage, he was really hard-ass. But he taught me, don't listen to how I say it, listen to what I say. Because when you're a drill son, you got to be like this at all the time. So he was like that all-time.

But he could be really nice. Like, he would be like, what's up, Perry? How you do? Like, he'd be yelling, but he'd be talking. So that was just who he was. Again, he told me, he said, don't listen to how I say, just listen to what I say.

And so, like, even with him yelling all the time, it wasn't a real yell, it was just how he was. What balance do you take with your own kids between being tough on them and being nurturing when appropriate? I'm one of the luckiest guys in where I have six awesome children. They know and understand.

I have face discipline with them. All I do is make a face. And the face sometimes get me in trouble with the girls because they'll just start shedding tears, in tears immediately, so I have to loosen up the face muscles with the girl. But the guys, I just, are, really? Say it again, I dare you. But I've never had to spanking when they're doing anything.

So that's good for me. Yeah, so they know what might be coming just from the look, and that's enough, usually. Yeah, they know. I think most parents probably have that. If you don't have face discipline, you got to, you got problems. Yeah. All I got to do is just look at them. How do you separate the game and fame from your personal life and not let one interfere

with the other because you're really good at that. It is what it is. What you see is what you get. A lot of people like to use the word. Role model to me is you're playing a role. I'm a real model. What you see is what you get. I don't want to be one of those guys that acts a certain way

when the camera's around, when the marketing team is around, and then get behind closed doors and do that because that's how one day you get caught and people will realize that you're a fraud and it'll be all over. It's happened. So I try to keep it real, but in a respectful manner. With me, what you see is what you get.

I'm a funny guy in real life. I talk to people in real life. I love kids in real life. I love rims and I love hanging out. This is what I do. I'm also very professional. I'm also educated. I speak to language, and I think that's why I'm running for sheriff.

I think I'll do a good job because I speak all types of languages. I can go on the corner and, what up, bro, boom, boom, boom, boom. I can throw on a three-piece suit and have a conversation with Warren Buffett and boom, I can go, I speak all those languages but I just try to,

I just try to be myself. Like, I don't, I can't put on a facade just for this. Yeah. Because that will catch up with you eventually. I think a lot of people

in your position do put on that facade, otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation. What do you think is the difference between the confidence to just keep it real, just be yourself all the time and the cockiness

that a lot of these other guys, exhibit all the time. I can't speak for anybody else, but, you know, I'm in a position in my life. It's all about having fun. Like, I hate seeing people talk about how much money they got. Who cares? You know what I love? I live in the neighborhood, and listen to me closely now, I live in the neighborhood in Orlando. My house is 70,000 square feet. I'm not bragging. 70,000 square feet. It's not the best house in the neighborhood. It's a guy that has one for 90. And guess what? I don't know who he is or what he does. I've been trying for years to, the It's like, who is this guy?

It's another house down the 50,000. It's one that has a yacht in the bag. Like, those are people that really respect because they just do their work and they just come home. They're not on Instagram. Look, I'm living next to the track. I got a yacht. Like, I hate people like that. I would never do that.

Every now that I say, okay, I got this just to know that. But I don't like people like that. Yeah, you talk more about icy hot than your car collection. Yeah, exactly. Actually, I looked at your car collection online and I noticed you have a smart. car. I got asked. That was a long time ago.

Okay, because I was thinking... I bought it as a bet. What was the bet? I bet you can't fit in this smart car or I thought you can't get out. I bet me $30,000 to my favorite charity that I couldn't fit in a car. So I bought the car, got in the car, and then I gave the car to his daughter. Really? So you didn't seat mod the car?

So you really pulled that seat all the way back and just said that's Mark car. My knees were touching just the steering wheel a little bit, but I fit. And I'm like, you know, even with the Buick, people are, oh, you adjust the seat, The people at Buick wouldn't allow us to adjust to see. So I actually really fit. I got tired of being asked, do I fit in the Buick so much, I went out and bought a Buick. And one time I was speeding in the highway, I apologized all the police officers. And the cop stopped him.

And he comes up to the window, license, registration. And he sees me, and you should see the Joe in his face. And he says, oh, shit, you really do fit in the Be careful. That was a great story. That is funny. I would imagine, like, the Ferraris, you got him out of the seats. all these little cars, you got them on the seats. But what are the things you have to have custom-made?

Shoes, beds, car seats occasionally. A lot of people ask me to ask you that. It's close. I'm a T-shirt jeans, Tom's type of guy. I still got my Shack shoes that I wear every day. But I'm just a normal basic guy these day. So I will buy them bought because I don't like shopping. So like these jeans I have on a day,

I guarantee I got 40 pairs of each color. They're just in my house. So I don't want to be able to, like, three years from now, go buy jeans. I want to have, like, 200, 300 pair of jeans in each house. Wow. And do you buy the clothes yourself, or you have somebody who's like, hey, get him, he likes these, get a hundred more? I'm a regular guy.

I do stuff myself. I go to Walmart by myself. I go to CVS by myself. I go to Waffle House. I go to Krispy Kreme all by myself. Do you own a Krispy Kreme? Yes. Yes.

In Atlanta. You own a lot of different franchise businesses and things like that. How do you decide what you do you decide? to invest in. I mean, who do you even trust to advise you in that kind of thing? Well, first, I trust my panel, of course, and then myself. Like, for example, if I don't like this water and you being a CEO of this company, there's no amount of money you can offer me to drink this. And then I'll tell my panel, okay, if they're interested, I'm sure somebody else be interested. This is what I like to drink. That's the story I tell everybody. After we won a championship,

wea these contacted us. But as a youngster, I've seen the great weeds. commercials, but we couldn't afford Wheaties. For us, it was Frought to Freaks, Fruit Loops, dig them smacks. So Wheaties contacted us and said, hey, won't you be on the cover? And I told my agent, I said, can't do it. What do you mean you can't do it? Breakfast Champion? I said, I never ate Wheaties, and I'm not going to try it right now.

If I'm eating cereal, it's going to be Frotter Flakes won, fruity pebbles, then dig them smack. So second championship, Wheaties come back again. I'm like, can't do it, bro. Third championship, I can't do it. And in the fourth championship, I think they did deal with the NBA and DOA to myself was on it. And then finally, my dream came true. About three years ago, Perry came to me and said, I got some good news, got some bad news.

So, okay, what's the bad news? He said, Frost the Flakes, still not interesting. Because I actually told him, I said, called Frost the Flake and tell him I'll be on the cover with Tony for free. They didn't buy it. So he said, Frost and Flake's not interesting. But Fruity Pebbles is. And he said, they want to put you on 30. 13 million boxes. And I said, let me think about it. Hell yeah. So I was on the cover of 13 million

boxes of fruity pellet, which was awesome. Because growing up, that's what I ate. In college, I really use icy hot and it really worked. And I was like, this stuff really, so when they approach it, I was like, you know what? I know about this product firsthand. Let's do it. So, you know, I have to be comfortable with the product. And then, like, if I'm not comfortable with the product, it has to be something new and innovative. Like, I'm really into technical. So like we meet with a lot of people that try to show stuff and I'm a geek a geek a geek save My high school career really I had a 69.2 in government class Like a D minus or something like that

And it was it was around playoff time and you know teacher I wasn't a one the bad student I just wasn't getting it and the teacher's like you know what I'm gonna give you a chance to retake this test Because we were like 33 and a hard times like she's like I'm not going to pass you just because you're athlete, but you work hard. I respect your work, you know, a trouble making class. I'm going to give you an opportunity to retake this test. You got to study with McDougal. McDougal was a geek in school that everybody used to bully and I used to just stick up for him. He was a smart kid. He had the computer back in the day where you had to press spacebar,

ESC, and delete, and he had the big, you know, he had that computer back in the day. Everybody used to mess with him. And I was the only one to be like, oh, man, leave him alone. Just leave me alone. So he was my tutor and he was the coolest guy ever. And he broke it down. So the way he broke it down, I made a B on the test, boom, wanted to state championship. And I was like, you know what?

I respect geeks and how they think I want to be a geek. And I've been a geek ever since. And I'm proud to say it. And if you see me in the streets, you can call me big geek and it won't hurt my feelings. Nice. You ever keep in touch with McDougal? No.

You know, crazy thing is I only really know his name. People just just call them McDougal. Oh, okay. So that could be anybody. Yeah, I actually have to look at my yearbook and see his name, but he was a nice kid. And my school was 9 through 12, 269 kids, 9 through 12. And my senior class was 39 students. So it was a small school.

Everybody in everybody there was. So, like, if you were an athlete and he was picking on this guy, I didn't really play that. I'm like, oh, man, leave him alone. Just like people would be messing with him because he just kept to himself and didn't say anything. But this dude had a 4.9. He was one of the smartest guys in school. Like, I can see people, like, when they're taking tests, I can see people looking over what does McDougal say?

See it. So I always used to just stick up for them because I don't like people just messing with people for no reason. This is the Jordan Harbinger show with our guest, Shaquille O'Neal. We'll be right back. Thank you so much for listening to and for supporting the show. Your support of our advertisers is what keeps things going around here. All those discount codes, I know they're kind of complicated.

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Jordan Harbinger.com as well. So please consider supporting those who support this show. Now for the rest of my conversation with Shaquille O'Neal. So you were always like that. You always had a good sense of humor, always... No. I was a bully at first. Really?

Yeah. Did this happen in Hinesville, Georgia? I want to say fifth grade. Previous before I got to school, my father said, if you get suspended one more time, you already know what's going to go down when you get home. Oh, man. Drill sergeant. Yeah, the paddle.

I'm in class, and I have a water bottle. I don't even know what I got it for, and I got some tissue. And I'm making this gigantic spit wide, and I'm just lubing it up. Boom, and it's the wettest thing ever. Oh, man. And I throw it on the chalkboard and splat.

Everybody, the kids going crazy, teacher turns around. I'm silent. And at this point, all the students know, don't mess the shack because he will do something to you. Take your lunch, whatever, whatever. So I'm sitting there and the teacher goes, who did that? And the guy ratch me out. Go through the thing, spend the five days.

So now I get to go back to class with the little slippers that got suspended. I'm just sitting like, man, man, man. And finally around 250, we get out at 3 o'clock. I look the kid said, I'm getting you today. And if I'm going to get an ass with me, you are too. So I wait about an hour And I see him sneaking behind I get him

And I just start touching him up And he starts having an epileptic season Oh man Yeah And some guy An innocent bystander came Put a pencil in his mouth So the cops came to the house

And they knew my father And the guy's family They didn't want to press charge But what my father did He allowed the MPs To take me to jail This is what had to happen He would have killed this kid

Yeah And they put me through the whole process charging me, handcuffing me, put me in a cell, boom, boom, boom, boom. It was sort of like, it was sort of like an uncut, gone straight.

Like, you know, scared straight, yeah. Like, but it was uncut because it was like a military prison. These guys in there, they were tough. And after that day, I was like,

you know, I'm not gonna do that anymore. I'm done with that. It would have been, if that kid would have passed away, but a whole different story. You didn't know that that was going to happen? No,

that was just, you know, I was just trying to show off for no reason. Where do you think you'd be today if you didn't become a basketball player? be a cop. Yeah. So you kept a full circle now.

Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I remember asking my father that. He said he would be a somebody. That doesn't matter. Like, I don't brag to the fact that I did this and I did that because we're all human beings, all put on this earth. We all put all males and females put their clothes on the same way. All the same people.

Some people just have different circumstances. So I try not to flash my circumstances with people. the face. Unfortunately, they know all my circumstances anyway. So I don't have to put it in their face. Is it strange to you not being able to have like a private life that people will just leave you the hell alone if you wanted it? I don't look at it like that. If I want to be unseen, I know how to get away. Like my go-to place to get away is Turks and Kikos in the Bahama,

rim me a little boat and just look at the blue water and just relax. If I'm having a bad day, I'll stay in the house. And I don't want to go out and get out of my face. Like, you know, I don't want that story to be out. So I know how to navigate my way through. So you manage your emotions really well, it seems like. You're self-aware enough to know. I'm 80-20.

I'm 80% humorous, 20% serious. And I don't really have to get serious a lot. You know, it's good that, you know, three people on my panel handle 90% of my business affairs, which is a good thing to have. Yeah. They are the left side of my brain. So I let them do all the intelligent thinking, and we have conversations. and then I'll help them make a decision at the end, which is good.

Because I think if I had to do all this stuff by myself, probably go crazy. So I just have teammates around you to help you win championships. Would you always the biggest kid in your class growing up? I was the biggest kid. And after I became a bully, I was like, how can I get these people to like me and respect me? Bam, I'm going to be silly.

I'm a funny guy. I watch Good Times, Sam for the Sun, Brady Bunch, Tom and Jerry. I like to laugh. I like to make people laugh. I like to dance. This is what I'm going to do to get people to like me. And it worked.

So I'm curious, the social impact of people always looking up at you and commenting on your height and asking, hey, do you play basketball? Because you weren't really a basket. You weren't good at basketball

when you were young because you were too big, right? When you were real young? I was just, wasn't I was too big. I was uncoordinated. Yeah, that's what I meant, yeah. I didn't have the belief. And once I saw Dr. Jay,

it's all about believing. Like a fault can just turn up your whole, your whole internal structure. It was crazy, like, because I thought I was a terrible player, so I actually was a terrible player. And then once I,

I could do that. You know, it felt like a movie, like as soon as I said, I could do that, it felt like a, just entered my body. And I just took off from there. You just kind of,

I just thought about it, thought about it and let it reprogram yourself. Because for so long, being 6, 3, 6, 4, not being able to play, and people whispering, he's going to be terrible. Like, you hear that stuff,

you see it, you start to believe it. I'm like, maybe I am terrible. You know what? Let me go to this local ROTC program and look at these pamphlets and see what the military life is really about. 18 to get in, boom, bam, bam, bam. I might be in the military. Then I just changed my thought process and then, phew.

What age did that happen? 15. 15, wow. So you were pretty young still at that point. Yeah, I saw Dr. Jay at 14. And then 15, I was like, now it's time to go do something about it. Is your mom coming out? the statue unveiling?

Yes, yes. Yeah. Yeah. You still turn to her for advice from the sound of it and she's on the panel. I mean, she even had you sort of... She's the head of the panel.

The head of the panel? She gets upset with me sometime. Like, doing this to, the, what you call it, beef, I'm not going to say as nay, I don't want to get sent to me. I was about to bring that up, but I won't do it.

I can bring it up. I'm not going to say his name up. Okay. But you got out of hand. And when she called, she said squash it, got a squash it. President of the panel,

mama, she's just said, leave it alone. I was having fun with it, but, you know, Mama said, hey, leave it alone. I got to leave it alone. You don't question your mother. Yeah. The question his mother, not a true man. Why did she get involved in that?

Because Javel, McGee's... No, I ain't got to do that. My mother is a thousand percent corporate, and she became that way. Well, she's always been that way, but she tells the story that she had me at a young age. She sacrificed a lot. But because she invested her time in me, it's paying back. Her ROI is, it hit. It's like Google.

Yeah, the IPO has hits. It is hit. So it enabled her to go back to school and get her bachelor's, her master's, and her doctorate. So my mother is a sharp corporate businesswoman, and she knows it's just bad for business. Me with my whole man ego thing, you say you want to fight. We're going to fight. That's just how I am. And she's like, son.

Like, you know, she'll break it up. He got babies looking up until you, boom, boom, boom. And then it able to me to stop and like, she's right. Shut it down. Boom, boom. But again, when you're a man and you're competitive and, you know, people challenge you. Like, if you challenge me now, I'm going to just get like this and like I'm going to be in challenge more. So, but, you know, she called me and just had to let it go.

Yeah, it seems like that's one of the most powerful things around you is having other brains doing the thinking. As self-aware as you are, as willing and able as you are to manage your own emotions, having five other brains that go, well, hang on, let's take a breath here. It's been your saving grace for a long time. General Dwight Eisenhower said the greatest leaders are the one smart enough to hire people smarter than you around you. Best quote ever read in my life. If someone's listening to this right now and they think, I should do a panel, I should get my own panel, where do you recommend they start looking for that?

Family, friends, and people that you trust. How do you know who you can trust if you already have a measure of success, right? Because those people then could have, not your family necessarily, but a lot of people around you have an agenda by that point. Good point. I don't have a blueprint for it, just like a number. gut-filling thing. One thing about Perry in my relationship is Perry wasn't,

didn't come looking for me. I found him. Uncle Mike and Uncle Jerome have been there since I've been a youngster. When I get caught stealing gum and the people call the cops, the cops are saying, hey, Uncle Jerome, Uncle Shat, we got your nephew again. We'll go get them. They come down. Instead of, you know, hit me with the book, they would explain,

you know, man, you can't do this, boom, boom, boom. And my mother, you know, you got to love my mother. And Coach Brown's got to offer me a scum. when I was the worst player on the Army base. He came in there and said, hey, I want to offer you a scholarship anyway because, you know, you're saying you're not a good player, and I know this Army life your dad probably can't afford a college. You can come to LSU anyway.

So that's why I decided to go to LSU, but that's why he's on the panel. So it's just like a gut feeling. One, you can't have yes people. You know, somebody's respect and I just got to tell you like it is. And the good thing for me is I don't know everything. If I don't know, I'll ask a question, then I can figure it out. But you have to be able to have someone that you love and respect, be honest with you by keeping it real. Like when you do something wrong and they say, you shouldn't have did that, you got to fix it.

Like, I'm not the guy, whoa, no, no, no, no, no, you shouldn't have did that, you shouldn't set that, boom, bam, bang, bang. I talk to you later. And then, you know, I listen about, listen to them, think about it, and then we move on. Respect is the key word. Like Kobe, we had our ups and down. but we always respected each other. Want to know how I know we respect to each other? In game seven, who did Kobe throw the lob to?

Yeah, that was you. After the championship, Indiana, who did Kobe run and jump into his arms? It must have been you. It must have been me. So, you know, after game in Indiana, when Kobe's sprained his ankle and couldn't walk, who said, jump on my back and I walk you to the bus? Yeah, that was you. The respect is there.

Forget the little tits and the tats. You can have that up. Brothers have that. Yeah, sisters have that. Married people have that, but as long as you got the respect there, it'll work. And that's what it's all about, especially when deciding your panel. When you got your check, when you first signed, you spent your first paycheck, I think, and was it 45 minutes or part of your first paycheck anyway?

It wasn't my first paycheck. It was my first big check from classic cards. And did a card signing there for a camera and it was a million dollars. And, you know, when you're a young kid and you have no business etiquette or you don't know anything about business, A million is a million. Every man that works and every man that has to pay a mortgage, you know that FICA, sales tax, states tax, all those people are going to get their money first before you see that. So my check was about $7.50 and I didn't even know. Like my guy said, oh, hey, you sign for a million.

And then I didn't even factor in his 15%, which is 150. And then boom and bam. So by the time I bought three cards, I bought a card and my father said I want one. And in my mind, I was like, 150 minus a million. Oh, I got 850 left. Cool. And then my mom said, hey, I want one. I'm like, okay.

$8.50, man. Okay, boom. $700. Yeah, let's do it. Boom. And then I got a call from the bank guy next day. He said, you're $30,000. I bought rims and suits and baggy pants and Versace shirts and chains.

And it was wild. That's when my father came and varied and said, see, see, let's go. You need to get a businessman. and then that's when I started looking for people. The lesson to take away from that is, one, get a business manager, and two, don't go to the car dealership with your parents.

No, just, well, they just have to be smart. Like, I wish I would have knew about leasing back then. I probably would have just leased a thing. Yeah? I could have just put like $5,000 and paid, you know, $700 a month for three years rather than just give rat a guy check for $153 times. Expensive lessons, man, expensive lessons, check.

What did you do, before you had no, though. I mean, in college, you must have had to sleep sideways on beds or stack beds together. I mean, what was that like? I tried to get all the free stuff, and when I mean free stuff from LSU I could. So I had about 20-30 basketball Reebok sweatsuits. That's all I wore. Just track suits? Track suits and T-SU football shirt, a T-shirt, and then I got a Pell Grant. So the Pell Grant, I got like $15,000. Oh, yeah. So I go to the bank and I put $300. $100 bills, three, $100 bills, and the rest in one. So I walk on campus like I had a big lot of money.

Just to feel like, all right, I still got something in my pocket, huh? Nice. Nice. Just to feel rich. I guess that makes sense. I guess that makes sense to make sure you got something to show for it. Why the rap career being in movies, you know, it's, I mean, you went platinum, so not bad, but what was the value add there?

What was the point? It wasn't about doing those things. It was about following my dream. I'm in the studio with Notorious B-I-G. Yeah. How many people can say that? Not many. I'm in the studio with Jay-Z, Nass, Peter Guns, Lord Tarreek, Eric Sermon, Wu-Tang Clan,

written. Like, those are guys that I grew up listening to, Tribe Called Quest. That's making it. Forget hot sounds and boom and bam and sell albums. Because, like, I told a rapper this one time, rap money is nothing to me. You can sell a mean album, two-mean albums. You ain't getting a lot. of that back. You know, you got to recoup and, like, a lot of people don't understand that,

you know, so for me it was just fun. And then the movie thing is, it's all about opportunity. I got blue chips from sitting in Jerry's Deli. The guy that wrote White Man Can't Jump was coming up with a script, Blue Chips, and he saw him, and he's like, hey, you're Shaq O'Neal, right? Boom, boom, boom. I'm doing the movie. Would you like to be in it? What'd you think? I'm going to say, no. No, I got to concentrate on my basketball. Forget that. I'm a, yeah, I do it. That's my, had to play me. It was one of my better movies. And then, you know, out here,

meeting people and shaking hands. Like, we could offer stuff all the time that we have to turn down. But it's all about opportunity. And so you seize on those opportunities. As soon as you smell a good one, there's no hesitation. Yeah.

And then, you know, it's all about having fun. It's not like we're out there like, you know, like, you know, like, hey, we want you to do this. That seems cool. Let's do it. I think the rap money doesn't mean anything to me is something that only a professional basketball player can say. I was making 20, 30 million a year for basketball.

Yeah. And another 10, 15 from Pepsi and Reebok and another from the Shack. Like, we were, I could have sold two, three million albums and got three million back. That's nothing. In the way, that's the most hip-hop thing you could possibly say, right?

Like, you know, this isn't enough money for me. Like, when you're talking about Shack money, but, you know, to be able to tell your kids or to have people know that you were friends with Notorious B.I.G He did a song with Jay-Z. That's classic. Yeah, you got the legendary status. Because, again, the thing is, those people didn't like what I was doing,

they probably would have said no. Sure. They knew that, you know, we all, because we all come from the same place. We are from the inner city. On the way to the court, I got my cane on, I got my fake rope chain on. I'm L.O. Fuget. As soon as I get there, open my bag and put out my Chuck Taylor's, and I'm Dr. Jett. So, you know, so like when I call all these people up, who a lot of them didn't charge me, by the way,

It's like, yeah, man, we would love to do it. And they saw my passion, and they saw that I really respected the craft. It was okay. Is there anything else on your bucket list that you haven't ticked off yet, any plans to do anything? Yeah, we actually talked about today. I have a dangerous bucket list that. If it don't go right, you could probably never hear from me again. And I'm only let the world know about two of those things.

I would like to skydive. I would build a contraption that could survive Niagara Falls. What does the panel think about that one? They don't like it, but I want to do that, man. Because I like to have fun. I think if we're designed in a certain way, especially to where if I bounce around, nothing to hurt. Sure.

And it has to be strong enough to withstand in case they hit a rock or something. But I would like to do that. And then put cameras in and let people tune in and see if I make it or not. Could stream it live, man. Either way, it'll be a good show. And then I want to climb the Himalayans. I hear that's tough. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I hear that's very, very tough. I want to do that. When I were bare grills and. That was tough, so. I have a lot of things doing my bucket list. No MMA anymore, huh? Nah. Nah.

Because I know that you and Charles Barkley were both kind of into that at one point. If I fought the NBA, MMA would only be one guy who would fight. Who would you fight? His name is Hungman Choi. He's a 7-4 guy from South Korea, I think. Wow. Yeah, 7-4-4. I never fought anybody in my size.

I would like to see how I would fare out against that. You could call Yao, too. He might do it. Yeah, I don't want these problems. All right on. So I love that. And you're not going to wrestle the big show? Probably not.

Nah. It doesn't seem like a good use of your lower back either. I got to ask, or people are going to get mad as we wrap up here. What's going on with the flat earth thing? You're just messing with everybody with that? Well, the earth is flat. Would you like to hear my theory? Yeah, tell me about it.

The first part of the theory is I'm joking, you idiots. That's the first part of the theory. The second part is I said jokingly that when I'm in my bus and I drive from Florida to California, which I do every summer, it seems to be flat. When I'm in my plane and we're getting ready to land and I open up the window and I'm looking at all the land that we flowered, it seems to be flat. But this world we live in, people take things seriously. I'm going to give the people answers to my tests.

Knowing that I'm a funny guy, if something seems to be. controversial or boom boom boom you got to add my funny points on right so now once you add my funny points on that should eradicate and get rid of all your negative thoughts right that's what you should do when you hear it's Shaquille O'Neal's statement okay you should know that he has funny points right over here what did he say the guy at boom boom boom boom boom at the funny points you either laugh or you don't laugh but don't take me seriously because when I want you to take me seriously you will know by the tone of my voice that I'm being serious. So we live in the world today, and Denzel Washington said it best. There's too much information right now. It's too much going on. So, like,

if, you know, somebody says something and, you know, they tire it and they send it out, by the time it gets to another guy, another guy, it's all messed up. So people actually really believe that I was serious when I said that. We actually had, no, we actually had people called in the office a long time, the shack really, no, I don't think that it was a joke. Okay? So know that when you're kill and they'll say something, 80% of the time, because 80% of the time I'm being humorous, it is a joke and 20% of the time I'm being seriously. I've got some thoughts on this episode, but before I get into that, we were humbled to have the opportunity to talk to the late Kobe Bryant for this interview just a few short months

before the tragedy. Here's a preview with one of basketball's most iconic legends, Kobe Bryant. I love the game. I love it. I didn't want to be away from it. I wanted to play. I wanted to play all the time. I was 18, 21 years old, I wanted to play basketball. I was consumed with this quest of trying to be the best. I knew I wanted to win five, six, seven championships. To me to come out and say that, people would think I was a lunatic. Negotiate with yourself. You know, what happens inside of here? Are you able to negotiate your way out of that little voice telling you it's not that important? Or does that little voice get the best of you? Remove the ego from this process.

Just focus on the act. And when you do that, now you can look at actions and then you can truly improve. How can you lock in and get into that mental space where nothing else matters? The noise of the crowd doesn't matter. Whether the cheering or booing doesn't matter, you're just completely locked in.

How do you do that? How do you not let demons of uncertainty get inside your head? Like when you tore your Achilles, are you not thinking like, uh-oh, how am I going to come back? Oh, God, yeah. If you're nervous or scared about a situation

instead of being like, No, there's nothing to be scared about. That would be scared about. Oh, shit, there is. And that's fine. That's okay. You know, like you own it. You give it a hug.

Embrace it. And now what are you going to do, bud? For more with Kobe Bryant, including how Kobe managed pressure in high-stakes situations and lessons Kobe learned from the people who are the best at what they do, check out episode 249 on the Jordan Harbinger show. Well, well, well, a lot here. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. Shack has not given anybody an hour of time.

since I want to say ESPN and I think 60 minutes a long time ago, because you kind of have to do that for 60 minutes. It's part of the show. Kind of ruined 60 minutes if you only go for half an hour, am I right? So a great big size 27 thank you to Shaq, to him and his whole panel, as a matter of fact. Links to all resources and all things Shaq will be in the show notes at Jordan Harbinger.com.

Please use our website links if you buy any book from any guest or anything from any guest for that matter that does help support the show. Transcripts are in the show notes, videos up on YouTube. Advertisers, deals, and discount codes for all sponsors are all on the website at Jordan Harbinger.com slash deals. Please do consider supporting those who support this show. I'm at Jordan Harbinger on both Twitter and Instagram. You can also connect with me right there on LinkedIn. I'm teaching you how to connect and maintain your relationships using software systems and tiny habits in our six-minute networking course, which is always free. I don't want your credit

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