He weighed an unremarkable 7-pounds-13-ounces and was named for an Islamic phrase that means 'Little Warrior.' His parents, Lucille O'Neal and Joe Toney, never married. Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal was born in Newark, New Jersey, on March 6, 1972.

Off the court he is known to flash an ear-to-ear grin and to emote the unflappable personality of a 12-year-old boy. By his eleventh year in the league he was sporting three NBA championship rings. O'Neal, who moonlights as a recording artist, movie star, and television director, is an Olympic gold medallist and on multiple occasions a most valuable player (MVP) honoree. Yet without spending a dime of his NBA salary, he embarked on a luxurious lifestyle funded exclusively from endorsement contracts and personal ventures. A giant of a man, he put a new slant on the celebrity status of living large, when as a 19-year-old draft pick in the National Basketball Association (NBA) he signed the largest rookie contract in the history of professional basketball. His hulking presence is distinctive and unmistakable even among his peers, the so-called big men of basketball. His combination of size, strength, height, and speed is rare. At seven-feet-one-inch tall and 335 pounds, he dominates a basketball court with little effort. Shaquille O'Neal represents professional basketball in the third millennium.

Shaq flat earther