Before Shaq joins who he believes is the greatest basketball player ever in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday night, he shared a funny story about Julius Erving while speaking at Springfield College. Shaq said the first time he met Erving was in his dorm room at LSU. Shaq did not expect to see Dr. J.
“True story — he woke me up in my college dorm room one day. Seriously,” O’Neal admitted. “He was going to speak either in Baton Rouge or LSU and I was sleeping and woke up and I saw this good-looking brother with his hand on my chest. I was like, ‘God? God is a black man?’
“And then I said, ‘Dr. J?’ And after I said that, I thought I was dead. I said, ‘Damn, I’m dying in college? Can you believe this?’ And it was Dr. J. We talked and we had a good conversation.”
Here’s the video from MassLive of Shaq telling the story himself (be sure to crank the volume up if you listen, the audio is very low):
Now, decades later, Dr. J will be presenting Shaq at the Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony.
Never give up on your dreams.