NBA Legend Shaquille O'Neal was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame this week, and many stories about his career were retold and explained long after he had been gone from the game.
One of the accounts O'Neal has been more vocal about lately is the reconciliation with his biological father Joe Toney.
O'Neal met with Toney at a restaurant in Newark after not seeing him since he was 12-years-old.
When he was able to contact him, they met and O'Neal explained what he said in the conversation.
He came downstairs, we hug, we chatted. My message to him was, ‘I don't hate you. I understand the circumstances… It happens to a lot of men in America. I will never judge you, and I just want you to know, thank you.' And he was happy, and I found out I got two brothers that I never knew. . . I said, ‘Brother, I don't hate you at all, it's all good,' shook his hand and gave him a hug. He had some tears in his eye. He's 70! I didn't know he was that old. He said, ‘Man, I never knew, this feels great.'
Phil Harrison (a military officer and his stepfather) along with O'Neal's mother raised him from his youth. During that time, the family traveled and lived in different parts of the world on military bases. Harrison passed away in 2013 but is credited by O'Neal for being the man whom he has become in life.
As for Toney, he and his son were estranged for much of his life, and the pain of his absence was mentioned in one of O'Neal's 90's rap songs.
A little bit of time and a different perspective can change things, and the two have continually been in touch with each other since their lunch meeting.
O'Neal said he plans to meet his other half of the family one day, and with his father being 70 years old now he can take the time to put together the other parts of his life.
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