Amid Academic Pursuits, Shaquille O’Neal Returns to Honorary Job to Make 500+ Kids Happy

“I just want you to have an education, have fun, be yourself. And I tell them and they kinda got mad at this, ‘In order to touch daddy’s cheese, you gotta have 3 degrees.’” Shaquille O’Neal is so big on education that he wants his kids to get degrees to have any claim to the $500 million of his net worth. The Lakers legend himself is preparing for his 4th degree. He has faced issues during his classes, so his recent philanthropic method is to make sure no other children face the issue.

Back in 2021, the Henry County Sheriff’s Office announced Shaquille O’Neal as their Director of Community Relations. Recently, at the Shaquille O’Neal Boys & Girls Club of Henry County, WeNeed2Read Program kicked off an initiative. The event was about Read-A-Thon, where more than 500 kids turned up. The initiative was to make sure parents and students from Grades 3 to 8 of Henry County attended the event. Dr Earlene Harrison Crump voiced the reasoning for the initiative.

“We are very thankful that our sheriff department, as well as Shaquille O’Neal…” The Executive Director Family Service continued, “We as a school system believe when students succeed, we all succeed.” Currently, the Lakers legend is pursuing his 4th degree. That’s right, B.A. degree in General Studies (Minor in Political Science) from LSU.

Later, he would pursue a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Phoenix. In 2012, Shaq received his  Ed.D degree in Human Resource Development from Barry University. Still, he wanted to pursue another degree because of one goal in mind.

In March last year, Shaquille O’Neal stated, “I’m making my announcement here. I am making preparations to get my master’s in sport psychology.” His reasoning for gaining that degree was simple. “When I say something as a sports psychologist, you can’t be like I’m hating be like. No, no, no, I’m educated in this field, that’s right!” However, in this pursuit, the Lakers legend path got a little tricky.

Shaquille O’Neal and his hurdles during education

In October, the 4x NBA champion harped on why it was important for him to get the degree. “I want to be the world renowned expert when it comes to sports psychology, you know, in the field. It’s a lot of people who know things from the academia side but I’ve never met anyone that can tell you from the professional side.” Despite being an analyst at TNT, Shaq wants a degree to prove to the world why his assessment makes sense. In order to get there, he will have to learn a few words first.

via Imago

3 months ago, Shaquille O’Neal explained his issue in schooling. “School is killing me, by the way. You know why? It’s bad cuz I can’t write white..like I don’t have a big vocabulary,” O’Neal said. When the host, Adam Lefkoe, asked the basketball legend to use a thesaurus, which is a synonym dictionary, O’Neal misunderstood and thought he was being suggested to use an AI tool. “I don’t want to cheat. I know where you’re going; I don’t want to use chat GPT.”

At the age of 53, Shaq is facing vocabulary issues. So, to make sure the next generation doesn’t face the same issue. He was part of the literacy initiative. with his Boys & Girls Club of Henry County.