Shaquille O’Neal is widely considered one of the most dominant players of all time. Shaq managed to break all stereotypes and dominated other centers. In addition to being a great player, he also succeeded in education.
Does Shaq have a PhD? Shaq does have a PhdD. He graduated from Barry University, earning a doctor’s degree in organizational learning and leadership. The former center earned a degree in 2012 and in his dissertation he explored productivity.
Shaq managed to establish himself as a player who was unstoppable and he also managed to be equally successful in getting decent education. Let’s have a look at the player’s education in more detail.
Briefly About Shaq’s Career
Shaquille O’Neal retired from basketball in 2011 at the age of 39, having spent 19 seasons in the NBA. He won the title three times with the Los Angeles Lakers and the fourth time he won the title with the Miami Heat in 2006.
The athlete was named the most valuable player in the NBA All-Star Game three times (2000, 2004 and 2009). During his career, Shaquille O’Neal scored 28,596 points.
The former star of the NBA, American Shaquille O’Neal, has many nicknames “Shaq”, “Big Daddy”, “Diesel”, “Superman”. Now one more has been added – Dr. O’Neal. A basketball player, actor, rapper, police officer, TV presenter and other professions of the legendary ex-NBA center are known to people.
Shaq is Proud of his Degree – and Mother
The basketball player admitted that he is proud of his degree like nothing else in life. He hoped to become an example for others. If we take a look at the statistics, every fourth child in the United States does not complete the entire course of education.
Shaquille, whose height is 216 cm, had to get down on one knee so that the scientific advisor could throw the mantle over him. After that, he gave a short speech in which he thanked his mother. According to Shaq, she always pointed out to him the importance of getting a good education.
O’Neal has trained over the past four years (from 2008 to 2012) mainly through video conferencing and online courses. In his graduate work, Shaq explored the use of a sense of humor in the workplace by executives and businessmen. The average mark for the entire period of study was 3.813.
Big Aristotle
It’s no secret that basketball players’ educational achievements often end in high school or their freshman year in college, which they entered due to NBA restrictions. But there are also exceptions. Shaquille took care of his future in time, earning his bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University in 2000.
If you thought that O’Neal stopped there, then you are badly mistaken, because after five years, Diesel became a master of business administration at the University of Phoenix. In 2012, Shaq once again surprised everyone with his thirst for knowledge by defending his doctoral dissertation on Duality, humor and aggression in leadership styles.
Degree is Necessary
O’Neal is considered by many to be the most influential player in NBA history. In American reality, this event (getting PhD) is significant. The National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball are often criticized for recruiting athletes straight out of high school. The idea is that a career in big sports is a very fragile thing, ready at any moment to completely unexpectedly and irrevocably end.
No matter how well the athletes themselves understand this, they cannot resist the tempting conditions of contracts, because they have families, whose standard of living is often very low. And this fact, critics of the sports system, aimed at 18-year-old school graduates, prefer not to take this into account.
On the other hand, for some reason, the same athletes do not even consider the possibility of improving their education, and O’Neal’s example can serve as an excellent precedent in this case. He proves that you can get an excellent education while remaining among the best athletes in the world. With his diploma, O’Neal confirms that a sports career is short-lived, and after leaving the big sport, it becomes necessary to find a job, because the need to feed his family and maintain a standard of living turns into the number one problem.
The idea that, O’Neal would have to work in a “regular” job, of course, can seem quite amusing, if not absurd. His fees only for participation in advertising and reality shows are in the tens of millions. But for every star, there are countless high school graduates who drop out of college after talking to an agent promising a great future for them. But after a while it turns out that there are no chances for a professional future. Because in professional sports you need to run much faster and jump much higher. There is also a sad ending associated with serious injuries, which are not so rare in sports.
O’Neal could use his degree in job search, and the range of options here is very wide: from the manager of the NBA team to the CEO of a large company.
Many might argue that this is nothing more than a PR coup. Others will argue that both the MBA degree from the University of Phoenix and PhD is of little value since it is taught remotely. The arguments are good, but they all lose their relevance in the light of the fact that the athlete has managed to do something that neither his colleagues on the sports ground, nor most of his fans can boast.