Shaquille O’neal grew up calling drill sergeant Phillip Harrison ‘Dad’. A no-nonsense U.S. Army drill sergeant who married Shaq’s mother, Lucille, when Shaq was just three, Harrison became the rock in his life. He instilled structure, accountability, and mental toughness—all the qualities that later defined Shaq’s dominance on and off the court. At 11, Shaquille O’Neal learned that the man he called ‘Dad’ wasn’t his biological father, and he vowed to find the truth. Decades later, the four‑time champion finally confronted his past on The Big Podcast, revealing the painful moment that reshaped his identity.

Harrison’s influence was deep. From trips to Madison Square Garden to the sharp-edged lessons at home, Shaq often said he owed it all to him. “If you listen to me, I’ll make you one of the most dominant big men ever,” Harrison once told him—and he did. When Harrison passed, all the emotions Shaq had learned to hold in came rushing out. “I really let it go because I didn’t get to tell him thank you enough.” That grief triggered Shaq’s search for his biological father.

O’Neal got real recently on The Big Podcast with Shaq, opening up about a moment that hit him hard as a kid. “I found out when I was 11 that my father wasn’t my biological father,” he said. “I found it in school ’cause dude was like, ‘You know why your last name is different?’ ‘Cause my father’s last name is Harrison and all my brother and sister are Harrison… ’cause he’s not your father.” When a classmate exposed his name, 11‑year‑old Shaq punched out his anger, defending the only father he knew. “I was mad because my father was a drill sergeant. He was tough. He was a disciplinarian—like the stuff you can’t do today.” But even through that frustration, Shaq sees the value now. “That’s what made me who I am today.”