The Obvious Protest- Enough with the "bad apples" already, BLACK LIVES MATTER

In the 4th grade, Brunson-Dargan Elementary, Ms. Bostick's class, I had become really good friends with a kid (we'll call him Wes). One of the things we had to do daily, was 30 minutes of silent reading (booooooo). BUT, we could bring a book from home (couldn't be a magazine/comics/or any of that) It had to be an actual BOOK/novel. So one day, my friend Wes comes in with a book that has Shaq on the front of it, and he's holding a basketball. And in HUGE letters on the cover it said SHAQ ATTAQ. I had NEVER been so interested in a book in my short life. I remember asking Wes about the book and him telling me it had cussing in it. NOW, I had to read it. So, I would bug him about the book all the time. And I probably read half or a little over half of it, when we had a falling out. I don't remember what I did, I just remember what he did. He became a huge jerk one day and went off on me and was like, "stop asking to read my book, get your own book fat boy" (or something along those lines). I was PISSED. I begged my mom for that book, and it took awhile, but she finally bought it for me. Revenge time. Even though it was at least a month or so later, I walked in class, slammed my Shaq Attaq book on his desk, and said "I got my OWN book now."
I read the book cover to cover at least 4 times. I didn't want to read anything other than Shaq's book and my favorite childhood author Walter Dean Myers. I knew everything there was to know about Shaq. He was EASILY my favorite player as kid. (also loved Larry Johnson aka Grandmama, MJ, Chris Webber, and Penny)
Secretly, as a kid.... I wanted to BE Shaq. Here's a big guy, who's charismatic, funny, the best center in the league, and everyone seems to love him. I wanted to be like that. I wanted to be like Shaq. And in many ways, UNFORTUNATELy, as I grew up...I became Shaquille O'Neal. BUT NOT JUST ME. Not just my co-host Marc. Men all over America turned into Shaquille O'Neal. Hindsight is always 20/20, and today we're going to take a look back at the career of Shaquille O'Neal (on and off the court) and how we and many men have made many of the same mistakes he made along the way.

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