Discerning students and adult readers should prefer old books to new ones. After all, time-tested wisdom always trumps fashionable nonsense.
Likewise, older interviews have enduring appeal when they happen to showcase the wisdom and kindness of a gentle giant.
In a YouTube clip of a 2015 interview with journalist Graham Bensinger, NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal — better known as Shaq — recalled with gratitude an oft-bullied high school “geek” who, in O’Neal’s words, “saved my life.”
“Everybody’s bullying this guy. So I’m like, ‘You know what,’ cuz he was cool,” O’Neal said, though he could not recall the bullied kid’s name. He only remembered calling the kid “McDougal.”
“So everybody was messing with him. So I came to his aid. I was like, ‘Listen, y’all mess with McDougal, you gotta mess with me,’” O’Neal recalled.
That act of kindness did not go unrewarded.
In fact, O’Neal recalled struggling in his high school Government class, earning a 68 on a test right before the state basketball tournament.
“I was sittin’, and then he came to the lunch table, and he was like, ‘Man, appreciate it. I hear you’re having some problems in Government. I could help you out,’” O’Neal said of McDougal.
From then on, the grateful McDougal tutored O’Neal after school.
Would America benefit from more bold but humble athletes like Shaquille O’Neal?
Ironically, the bullied geek gave the basketball star a shot of missing confidence.
“And the way he tutored me, I was like, ‘This really is not that bad.’ It was kinda easy. But because I had self doubts and felt that I wasn’t smart, like, I didn’t even look at it,” O’Neal said.
McDougal’s tutoring helped O’Neal pass the class. Then, the following school year, the grateful McDougal also helped O’Neal get through Algebra 2 and Chemistry.
As he explained earlier in the interview, an elementary school fight helped shape O’Neal’s attitude toward bullying.
“So I’m beatin’ this kid up, and I’m kickin’ this kid, and he has an epileptic seizure,” O’Neal recalled.
That put an end to young his bullying days.
“After that, I go home. I get disciplined. My mother pulls [me] aside and says, ‘You’re too big and too strong. You can’t ever do that again.’ And that kinda stayed with me,” he recalled.
The 52-year-old O’Neal began his NBA career with the Orlando Magic (1992-96), achieved legendary status by winning three consecutive championships with the Los Angeles Lakers (2000-02) and then won his 4th and final league championship with the Miami Heat (2006).
At 7-1, 325 lbs., with an infectious and larger-than-life personality, he earned nicknames like Diesel and The Big Aristotle.
Perhaps he can thank McDougal for the latter of those two nicknames.
In fact, the best thing about O’Neal’s story is that McDougal did not save his life by propelling him to a lucrative basketball career full of on-court achievements. Those probably would have happened anyway.
Instead, McDougal gave the future Hall of Famer the confidence to learn.
“So now I’m a nerd, and I’m a geek,” O’Neal said.
Thus, there is timeless wisdom in a story that features a gentle giant using his physical power to protect a bullied kid, for the giant never knows when the bullied kid might turn around and repay him with an even greater power.
