Shaquille O'Neal's Mom Talks About Her Hall-of-Fame Son & Cooks His Favorite Meal, Lil Shaq Easy Mac

nineteen years four championships you've got kids wearing your son's Jersey does that ever does it thinking bless them just say bless them thank you for the blessing God thank you for the blessing so that's what it really is hi everybody it's time to chat with another one of my favorite moms okay I'm going to give you a hint she's a mom of four one of her sons in particular played for the NBA for 19 years and let's just say he's really tall you want to guess yes I'm talking with Shaquille O'Neal's mom Lucille Shakeel said in an interview that your mom told him once and i'm sure you've heard this quote many a time she said when he was born this one's special watch out for this one this one's going to be world-known everybody's going to know this guy's name when she was talking about Shaquille do you remember that moment I do she said it's something special about that one and I really didn't know what she meant then because you know I'm just a young mother trying to you know make sure that he's taken care of but she said it was something special about him and I think the reason for that was that being young unwed you have no business with a child but when God allows you to bring the child into the world pieces start to come together it's something special about that and we grew up together Shaquille and I a lot of people when they have kids at a young age they think things are over or they don't know what they're gonna do but I guess you're proof that it can be okay 17 you absolutely do not know what you're doing so you do the best you can with what you have to work with common sense little bit of help if you have that support and then you just take a day out of time [Music] tell me how many kids you have in there agents Shaquille is the oldest and he is 47 Latifah is 41 and then Aisha is 40 and Jamal is 39 she killed was the one that helped me with them I call him to help her and now we called him the eldest does he want to become known as the elder he has a mind he knows he can see gives orders he gives them orders and you know we all love it he takes good care of family so he is setting a standard for the rest of them and has always done that so take me back to when you were in the thick of it I haven't talked to any moms yet who have used the word easy is that what you want to call in the thick of it because she always in the thick of it I'm telling you the truth about that but when they were younger it was a lot harder because um you know we were trying to make it and a budget was low and transportation we didn't have enough uh we didn't have enough food we didn't have enough clothes so we were always lacking something so it was very hard but what helped us most is when we banded together as a family were you orderly we're you strict I'm not orderly and I'm not disciplined I'm loving okay just like a mother hand come on baby I got you for Shaquille specifically when did you see Talent it took a long time for me but she kills them playing ball since he was six there hadn't been a moment where you said okay the McDonald's all-american game and worldwide television and I said we could do something with this because the opportunity was beginning to present itself so that he can go to college how are you with all of the kids aren't grades academics no pass no play period no pass no play no extra curricular if you don't get your grades all of my children are athletes they're athletes to the bone and I think they have those gifts but I think that when we see the gift in our children our job is to nurture the gift you know how do you know when to encourage them and when to keep pushing them and when to let them control Shaquille said for a long time one of these days I'm gonna be a professional basketball player so we said okay we're gonna do what we can do to help you get there student athlete go to college perhaps you'll get drafted by the NBA but you have to do this first and then after you complete that then you have to do that first so it's a process and now one of the NBA's greatest and that number 50 he did a lot of practicing you perfect your game so that you can be in those rankings how long did he play before he was drafted by the NBA and what was that decision like I know you wanted him to graduate at the time or did you I wanted him to stay in school and finish he played three years in college they beat him up so bad he said mommy it's time for me to go I gotta take it to the next level [Music] I remember this discussion and then I said no just wait just wait he said mommy I got to do it now the time is now he said I make a promise to you he said I promise you I'll go back and finish and he did that when he was playing ball and he was you know the rock star that he is what would that like as a mom did you go to the games we're at the game cuz when he was little all of them were little when you're a parent and you're going to your child's game they want to be able to look into the stands and know that you're there they want to see you they don't have to say anything they know that you there give you a nod or I used to wink my eyes and she kids he could see that far so I'll give him a wink and a smile and he was playing his game but by the time he got to the NBA we had a ritual I would give him bubblegum and then I give him a kiss and I say play your game even as a grown man as a grown man but remember now she killed once at the league early he was 19 and I traveled with him for the first year when did you decide to go ahead and cut the cord and let him go when he said mommy I got this did you ever get nervous and want to run out into the court of course they were beating my bad get off of him yes you've made no secret about the fact that you turn to alcohol for a while and then I read in an article he said you know what eventually he thought there's so much attention on us you know I don't embarrassed and I want to do the right thing tell me about that heart it was a hard at first because selfish I don't care about none of those people I don't care about any of that but my son worked very hard to get to the position that he was in and I could not I could not embarrass him I needed to help him so I started working with him instead of working against him do you have any favorite moments favorite games favorite memories Bolivia you know I have to sit and think about about all of them was special I mean very special but I remember this is funny story because Shaquille was having problem with the free throws so somebody made me a sign that said bend your knees so I held this particular game from magic he was on a free throw line and I took the sign I stood up bend your knees bend your knees the crowd went into being your knees big he said please don't do that so I had to throw that sign away I had almost every one of she kills jerseys from every team that he played on you you recognize that like you look at just this picture alone I mean you can look at every corner of this office and find history but this is history and I know magic so it makes it special as well and he took Shaquille under his wing when I get from this pigeon said let me begin to hold you up now hold up the tradition hold up everything that you taught me what about that the West is one first championship were you there yes what was it like oh electric I was crying because I was happy for him okay so I couldn't leave without trying your famous mac and cheese okay you call him Shaquille we say Shaq but you say she kill right dude do you ever call him shot no he's just a stage name okay she killed to me Shaquille has always loved it so I got a recipe and I called it little shacks easy man because it's literally Mac okay and cheese that's it okay well what I put in it is just a few extra ingredients but I got to make sure I have to cheese it up milk and then I use eggs and did I put a little bit of flour in there flour just for consistency okay there hold it together okay and then I top it off with bread crumbs and then more cheese more cheese so I have some ready for you once a stick really you asking me if I want to taste it ask you that's why I'm here wait I don't want to mess this up we won't mess it up what we gonna eat it okay should I wait go ahead okay help yourself are you serious look at this huh this way I like it nice of Hattin Raymond right and like cheesy creamy I can have this whole thing we used to eat there by itself oh are you kidding of course a big plate of it like the cold - what does this Shack smack what does it call the little shacks easy man where'd you get a little shack from okay [Laughter] what is it that you're feeling is it joy is a gratitude what is it all of that because see I know the journey we live the journey and I tell people our then is definitely not on now so we're grateful for the journey we learned so much just to get to this point and it's not always been easy but it's rewarding now do you ever cry happy tears all the time and when you cry the other day - I'm ugly you're ugly crowd favorite moment of this wild ride you guys have been on together as a family when they retired his jersey in LA having the purple and gold from LSU and having a purple and gold from the Lakers all those dreams that he had and they manifest right in front of your eyes so special he's showing everybody whatever you want to do just do it you know opportunity and life we own this road only once if you don't make the best of it that's on you that's good that's good she's good you

Channel: TODAY

Views: 1,454,678

Keywords: The TODAY Show, TODAY Show, TODAY, NBC, TODAY Show Recipes, Lifestyle, TODAY Show Interview, Shaq, shaquille o'neal, shaquille o'neal meals, Moms Cooking, Shaq's mom, Shaq basketball, Shaquille O’Neal’s mom, Lucille O’Neal, NBA Hall of Fame, shaq hall of fame, Through Mom's Eyes, Today Originals, Easy Mac, Sheinelle Jones

Id: ZfOciVh8cu4

Length: 10min 51sec (651 seconds)

Published: Thu May 30 2019