Editor’s be aware: As the World Cup continues in the United States for the primary time since 1994, The Athletic is trying again at school sports activities in the Nineteen Nineties and the way a lot has modified since then. Join us for a couple of weeks of offseason soccer and basketball nostalgia.
Everyone who noticed Shaquille O’Neal from that night time ahead would have some precise sport movie to go on, which might serve as a software for each scouting and demythologization — see, he’s simply a 7-foot-1, 286-pound freshman, not a fire-breathing dragon in LA Gear sneakers.
But the primary poor sap who had to battle O’Neal in the put up, whereas his Southern Miss teammates handled LSU stars Chris Jackson and Stanley Roberts, had one alternative to watch O’Neal play earlier than Nov. 15, 1989, in Baton Rouge, La. He hadn’t caught the McDonald’s All-American Boys Game on TV a few months earlier. He didn’t see O’Neal gather 18 factors, 16 rebounds, six blocks and co-MVP honors.
His very first glimpse of O’Neal got here from throughout the court docket as O’Neal entered the world. O’Neal had to duck his head as he exited the tunnel. The response from the 6-6, 230-pound man who would quickly be face-to-face with him?
“Whoa. That’s dangerous.”
Another factor about that man: He would ultimately be a top-10 NBA Draft choose, going No. 9 in 1992 to the Philadelphia 76ers — lower than an hour after the Orlando Magic took O’Neal at No. 1. But on this night time, Clarence Weatherspoon was a little-known sophomore ahead taking part in for a workforce that was paid to present up and be a part of a coronation. Dale Brown’s preseason No. 2-ranked Tigers have been lastly unveiling the large fella.
Weatherspoon and the bodily outmatched opponents who adopted in the ultimate weeks of the calendar yr really acquitted themselves fairly properly. One of them was later inducted into his alma mater’s athletics corridor of fame, and his bio lists the modest stats O’Neal put up towards him.
It was good to get O’Neal early — earlier than he turned “Shaq,” one of many biggest gamers of all time and maybe essentially the most imposing, a four-time NBA champion, a three-time Finals MVP, who weighed greater than 400 kilos at occasions throughout his professional profession however by no means stopped dunking on individuals.
As a extremely hyped freshman out of San Antonio, Texas, he regarded skinny at 286 on opening night time. Skinny, foul-prone and never unattainable to maintain out of the lane. When M.Ok. Turk’s Golden Eagles switched out of zone and into man, 6-11 middle Daron Jenkins guarded sophomore Roberts (who was listed at 7-0, 288) and the muscled Weatherspoon saved his elbow in O’Neal’s again and his middle of gravity as low as doable.
“Just trying to keep a body on him, doing whatever I could do against one of the biggest humans I’d ever done seen,” mentioned Weatherspoon, who would lead the Golden Eagles to an NCAA Tournament bid that season and later get pleasure from a 13-year NBA profession.
“You’ve got to take it back to a different context; there was no social media then, it was all word of mouth,” mentioned Weatherspoon, who has been teaching since 2016 and is head coach of Meridian (Miss.) Community College. “Shaq and I were in different classes; I was in Mississippi and he was in Texas, so I never saw him before that. You heard about him, you read about him in Street & Smith’s. Our coaches tried to prepare us for what to expect. But you really didn’t know until you saw him in person.”
Such as on a play in which O’Neal gathered an offensive rebound and threw down a ferocious two-handed dunk that shook the basket help and thrilled the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. LSU had renamed its area a yr earlier, after Maravich’s tragic loss of life due to coronary heart failure at age 40. O’Neal represented the largest basketball draw in Baton Rouge since Maravich dazzled from 1967-70, averaging a still-record 44.2 factors a sport for his profession.
O’Neal, although, would want some ramp-up time earlier than delivering his largest thrills. Physical protection and foul bother restricted him to 10 factors and 5 rebounds in 16 minutes in his debut. Jackson scored 37. Weatherspoon had 17 factors and 14 rebounds in 39 minutes. LSU gained 91-80 in a sport that was a part of the Preseason NIT.
The subsequent one was, too. Roy Williams and Kansas got here to city. So did ESPN and Dick Vitale, on the decision with Barry Tompkins. O’Neal’s major defender? Another undersized standout, 6-8 junior ahead Mark Randall, who would lead the Jayhawks to the nationwide title sport the following season as an All-America senior earlier than going in the primary spherical to Chicago.
Williams largely went with 6-11 Pekka Markkanen — who later fathered future NBA ahead Lauri — on the veteran Roberts and counted on Randall’s guile towards O’Neal. O’Neal got a straightforward putback early over Randall. He ran the ground and, after an LSU steal, threw down a large dunk, prompting Vitale to declare: “Get ready for the arrival of the new Hakeem ‘The Dream’ Olajuwon in Baton Rouge!”
But seconds after that play, O’Neal misplaced Randall coming off a display and Randall swished a wide-open jumper on the high of the important thing. O’Neal fouled out with 3:42 to go and LSU down 79-74. Kansas held on for an 89-83 win. Randall hit 12 of 15 pictures and scored 26. O’Neal had 10 factors and 7 rebounds. Reality and mythology have been diverging.
A string of get-right wins adopted, and O’Neal’s first enormous sport — 26 factors, 17 rebounds, six assists and 6 free throws on 10 tries — got here towards a tiny Lamar workforce that had solely 6-9 Brad Westbrook to cope with O’Neal and Roberts. O’Neal had 18 and 12 towards Hardin-Simmons and its 7-7 middle, Mike Lanier.
He additionally fouled out of one other irritating grinder and near-upset loss to little Northwestern State, a faculty from three hours away in Natchitoches, La. Another 6-6, 230-pound ahead battled him in the put up. At one level, officers had to separate O’Neal and Dexter Grimsley.
“It was mouthy with a lot of pushing in there,” mentioned Grimsley, then a freshman and later a state consultant in Alabama. “We were tenacious with them, and eventually you could tell they got frustrated.”
At one level, Grimsley ran the ground in transition and located himself alone with the ball close to the rim. He needs in the present day he had given a pump faux — “I could have been hanging on the rim” — however as an alternative he went straight up. O’Neal flew into the play and swatted the ball into the stands.
“It felt like he sent it out of the gym,” Grimsley mentioned. “And then he said, ‘You know better than to try to bring that in here.’”
LSU got here again in the second half for an 83-73 win. Grimsley had 9 factors in simply 18 minutes due to foul bother. But he additionally fouled out O’Neal, who ended up with 12 factors and 7 rebounds in 17 minutes. That stat line is a part of the bio that accompanied Grimsley’s induction into the Northwestern State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2012.
“One thing I can tell you is we both left that game exhausted,” Grimsley mentioned. “And then I caught some cramps. … It’s just one of those nights you’ll always remember because you went toe to toe with one of the best to ever play the game.”
O’Neal averaged 13.9 and 12.0 for his freshman season. It ended with a second-round NCAA loss to eventual Final Four workforce Georgia Tech, led by one other star of the legendary 1989 freshman class, Kenny Anderson.
Jackson, who later modified his title to Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, averaged 27.8 factors per sport that season and left early for the NBA. Roberts left after that season to play in Spain earlier than going in the primary spherical of the 1991 NBA Draft. LSU nonetheless had good groups in O’Neal’s sophomore and junior seasons, however school basketball followers by no means got to see him play previous the primary weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
They did see him win AP National Player of the Year honors as a sophomore, after he averaged 27.6 factors, 14.7 rebounds and 5.0 blocks a sport. Reality didn’t take lengthy to catch up.
“I love how people say ‘generational’ all the time now,” Weatherspoon mentioned. “They throw it around way too much. But back then, we were at the beginning of something generational with that big fella, man. But I’m glad I got him as a freshman. That wasn’t Shaq yet, that was Baby Shaq.”