My niece in the backstage part of showbiz has worked with Shaquille O’Neal. He’s one of her favorites, a funny guy who treats people well. She’s worked with a lot celebrities whose names everyone knows and most of them are not like Shaq.
He gets trashed on FR for being muslim, but I’ve heard similar comments about him.
I'm a fan for his very sweet, amusing way of talking when he is an ad spokesperson. Makes you want to run right out and pick up some IcyHot or whatever he's selling. I saw his mother on a Christian talk show, and she is a Christian; so I don't know about the muslim thing. His Jamaican stepfather was an American Army sergeant and probably a Black Muslim, which is not quite the same as the middle eastern groups. Wikipedia says:
O'Neal was raised by a Baptist mother and a Muslim stepfather. Both Robin Wright in her book Rock the Casbah as well as the Los Angeles Times have identified O'Neal as a Muslim. However, O'Neal has said, "I'm Muslim, I'm Jewish, I'm Buddhist, I'm everybody 'cause I'm a people person."
Had a classmate from high school who worked with Alec Baldwin on Broadway. Said he was a jerk among jerks.
He appears to be a disarming humble and self deprecating black giant
I like him
And these days I rarely like any nba player or admin or sportscaster
For him to laugh that he is amused that great apes feel he is one of them and scares them is truly funny and honest
It’s his color and musculature and he’s honest about it without preening about being a victim of missing link racism
I truly respect that
I look forward to a Dave Chapelle treatment of it lol