Shaq is listed at 7 feet 1 inch (216 cm), the height on both his Basketball-Reference page and his official site. He was already towering over adults as a teenager: when LSU coach Dale Brown met him at 13, he was roughly 6'8".

Note: Reports of his height at 13 vary: about 6'6" (Wikipedia), roughly 6'8" (Dale Brown, via The Advocate) and 6'9" (Shaq himself in 2014, via AP).

His official listing is 325 pounds (147 kg). His real weight moved around over 19 seasons, and he was always happy to joke about it. Before the 2006 Finals he told reporters, "You've never seen anyone this big -- this sexy -- move this way."

Note: Basketball-Reference and SHAQ.com list 325 lb. Wikipedia's infobox says 325 lb but its player-profile section says 330 lb. Exact playing weight changed from season to season and was often reported as heavier late in his career.

Size 22. ESPN says that ties him with Bob Lanier for the biggest feet ever to step on an NBA court. His feet were huge early, too: Dale Brown recalled that 13-year-old Shaq was already wearing a size 17.

Note: Wikipedia lists size 23. ESPN and Shaq's own signed collectible releases (Reebok/Steiner) use 22, so we go with 22.

His full name is Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal. His mother, who was almost 18 when he was born, picked his names from a book of names. That book said Shaquille means "little one" and Rashaun means "warrior," which is why the pair is often translated as "little warrior." Sports Illustrated notes that fluent Arabic speakers today might translate Shaquille as "shapely" or "handsome" instead.

Shaq was born March 6, 1972, in Newark, New Jersey, which makes him 54 as of October 2026. Bonus birthday fact: he scored his career-high 61 points on his 28th birthday.

Four. He won three straight with the Lakers (2000, 2001, 2002) and one with the Miami Heat (2006). He was Finals MVP for all three Lakers titles. He and Michael Jordan are the only players to win Finals MVP three seasons in a row.

Six: the Orlando Magic (1992–96), Los Angeles Lakers (1996–2004), Miami Heat (2004–08), Phoenix Suns (2008–09), Cleveland Cavaliers (2009–10) and Boston Celtics (2010–11).

LSU (1989–92), where he played for coach Dale Brown and was a two-time All-American and the 1991 national player of the year. He left for the NBA after three seasons, came back to finish his bachelor's degree in December 2000, and in May 2026 earned a Master of Liberal Arts from LSU too.

Yes, and he earned it; it isn't an honorary degree. In May 2012 Barry University awarded him a doctorate in education (Organizational Learning and Leadership, specializing in Human Resource Development). He finished with a 3.813 GPA. His capstone looked at how leaders use humor or seriousness. He also has an MBA from the University of Phoenix (2005).

Kind of, and he takes it very seriously. He trained at the L.A. County Sheriff's Reserve Academy and has served as a reserve officer in several places, including L.A. Port Police, Miami Beach and Doral, Fla. In December 2016 he was sworn in as a Clayton County, Ga., sheriff's deputy, the tallest in the department's history. He also holds honorary titles: U.S. Deputy Marshal (2005) and honorary FBI special agent (September 2026). Those honorary titles are ceremonial and give him no investigative authority.

Note: How active some of these appointments are has never been fully clear. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted in 2016 that it was unclear whether the Clayton County role was ceremonial.

Most estimates put it at roughly $400 million to $500 million. Wikipedia cites about $400 million (as of 2022), and Celebrity Net Worth and Parade put it around $500 million (2025). He earned about $292 million in NBA salary and has built much more through endorsements, franchises and investments.

Note: These are third-party estimates, not audited figures, and they vary widely. Shaq has never published his finances. Treat any single number as a ballpark, not a fact.

He made 52.7% for his career (5,935 of 11,252), and his best season was 62.2% in 2002–03. Nobody has fully explained the struggle, Shaq included. He has joked that it kept him humble. During the 2000 Finals he said that if he shot 80 percent, "I'd be a harder person to deal with."

It's the strategy of fouling a bad free-throw shooter on purpose, often away from the ball, so he shoots free throws instead of his team running its offense. Coach Don Nelson popularized it in the late 1990s, first against Dennis Rodman and then against Shaq. In Game 2 of the 2000 Finals, Indiana's fouling sent Shaq to the line 39 times, though the Lakers still won. Starting in 2016–17, the NBA gives the fouled team a free throw plus possession for off-ball fouls in the last two minutes of every quarter.

Note: The phrase itself was in print by January 1995, before Nelson's famous use of the tactic.

Exactly once! He went 1-for-22 from deep in his career. The only make came for Orlando in a win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Feb. 16, 1996. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar also made just one three in his career.

Note: One NESN piece dates it Feb. 26, 1996, but most accounts, including Orlando Pinstriped Post's 25th-anniversary story, say Feb. 16, 1996.

Two in games, both in his 1992–93 rookie season. One dunk wrecked the backboard support in Phoenix. Another, on April 23, 1993 against the Nets, brought down the whole stanchion and delayed the game more than 40 minutes. The NBA strengthened its backboard supports the next season.

Note: The famous Reebok ad where Shaq shatters a glass backboard was staged, not a real game. Fan sites that count it, or practice incidents, inflate the total.

Several of them! He went into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016 (inducted Sept. 9 with Allen Iverson and Yao Ming), the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2017, the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014 (alongside his LSU coach Dale Brown) and the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2009.

A bit of everything. He's still an analyst on Inside the NBA, which moved to ESPN/ABC for 2025–26 and is still produced by TNT. He's also been Reebok's President of Basketball since 2023, founded the Big Chicken restaurant chain, headlines festivals as DJ Diesel, and in 2025 he took a voluntary role as general manager of Sacramento State's men's basketball program, where his son Shaqir plays.

Six: Taahirah (born 1996), Myles (1997), Shareef (2000), Amirah (2001), Shaqir (2003) and Me'arah (2006). Myles is ex-wife Shaunie O'Neal's son from a previous relationship. Shaq raised him, and Myles calls him Dad. Shareef, Amirah, Shaqir and Me'arah are Shaq and Shaunie's children, and Taahirah is from an earlier relationship.

They were legendary and complicated. As Lakers teammates (1996–2004) they won three straight titles. Their famously volatile partnership broke down in 2003–04, and Shaq was traded to Miami that summer. They patched things up later. At Shaq's 2017 statue unveiling, Kobe told him, "I've learned so much from you as a player," and in his Hall of Fame speech Shaq thanked Kobe for helping him win three titles "but also for getting me pushed off the team and traded to Miami." After Kobe and his daughter Gianna died in January 2020, Shaq called him "my brother" and Gigi "my niece."

Shaq's fast-casual fried-chicken chain. The flagship opened on Paradise Road in Las Vegas in October 2018. Since then the brand has expanded to 16 states, Washington, D.C., Manchester (England) and Carnival cruise ships. Menu headliners include the Shaq Attack sandwich (jalapeño slaw and chipotle BBQ sauce).

He does, as DJ Diesel! He says he has been DJing since 1988. He played his first Lollapalooza in 2019 to roughly 50,000 people and drew about 100,000 there in 2023. His EDM album Gorilla Warfare came out in 2023.

He wore #33 in high school and at LSU, a nod to Patrick Ewing. In the NBA he wore #32 in Orlando (teammate Terry Catledge already had 33), #34 with the Lakers, #32 in Miami and Phoenix, #33 in Cleveland and #36 in Boston.

61 points, on March 6, 2000, his 28th birthday, in a 123–103 Lakers win over the Clippers. He shot 24-for-35 from the field (13-for-22 at the line) and added 23 rebounds and 3 assists.

Once, in 1999–2000, and he missed being the first unanimous MVP by a single vote (120 of 121 first-place votes). That same season he won the scoring title (29.7 ppg), shared All-Star Game MVP and won Finals MVP.

Note: The lone dissenting first-place vote went to Allen Iverson, from CNN's Fred Hickman (per Wikipedia).

Yes. Orlando took him first overall in the 1992 NBA Draft. He won Rookie of the Year with 96 of 98 votes and was the first rookie voted an All-Star starter since Michael Jordan in 1985.

Yes, and he won gold at the 1996 Atlanta Games. Two years earlier he was MVP of the 1994 FIBA World Championship, which Team USA also won, and USA Basketball named him its 1994 Male Athlete of the Year.

He did, and the first one went platinum! Shaq Diesel (1993) was RIAA-certified platinum. Shaq Fu: Da Return (1994, gold), You Can't Stop the Reign (1996) and Respect (1998) followed. He even guest-rapped on Michael Jackson's "2 Bad" (HIStory, 1995).

His starring roles were Blue Chips (1994), Kazaam (1996), where he plays a 5,000-year-old genie who lives in a boombox, and Steel (1997). He's also popped up in Scary Movie 4, Jack and Jill and Grown Ups 2. Critics weren't kind: Kazaam sits at 5% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Three NBA teams: the Lakers (#34, April 2, 2013), the Heat (#32, retired Dec. 22, 2016) and the Magic (#32, Feb. 13, 2024, the first player number Orlando ever retired). LSU retired his #33, and so did Cole High School in 2014.

That's how Shaq tells it. The publisher's description of his 2011 autobiography Shaq Uncut (written with Jackie MacMullan) says he got cut from his high school team before he blossomed into the most dominant big man of his era.

Note: The details (which school, which grade, what the coach said) vary between retellings and couldn't be pinned down to a primary source here.