Truth be told Shaquille O’Neal really wanted a six or seven part documentary. He’s getting four parts in the new HBO docuseries SHAQ, which premieres on November 23. SHAQ tracks the journey of the most popular big man in America — entrepreneur, spokesman of yore, and NBA legend.
The 4-part documentary happens to match the number of NBA championship rings O’Neal earned — and doing the math you can see why he’d have preferred six or eight parts.
A documentary that big would mean six or eight rings, and in fact had O’Neal clutched the trophy more often the documentary would have been longer. (Still, four is four more than Charles Barkley has, if you’ve been under that rock.)
Yet the SHAQ doc is plenty big, like the man himself.
O’Neal’s mama always used to say, “there’s something special about that one.” And Mama was right, obviously. His father threw in the drive to push the special one, and promised to make O’Neal better than he himself had been. Shaq for his part had a simple goal.
“What do you want your legacy to be?” he was asked. He replied: “I want to be one of the greats.”
Though it is a very subjective topic — who are the greatest players? — O’Neal frequently lands on the lists, as is shown above. O’Neal is now 50, a time in life when he feels he can be reflective while keeping it “real.” Robert Alexander directs the film. Here is Shaq working one of his numerous side gigss
