Shaquille O'Neal Talks Importance of Graduating

Dr. Shaquille O'Neal recently taped a segment for American Graduate Day, a nationwide effort emphasizing mentorship to help students graduate high school. After taping his segment, O'Neal sat down for an interview with People, where he talked about his motivation for graduating college. The magazine quotes him as follows:

"I believe in role models, how they can influence people. It's important to keep kids on the right track. My grandmother, Odessa Chambliss [motivated me]. She was a nurse; she was the smartest person in the world. She didn't graduate from high school. She had to get a GED and then went on to nursing school to support me and my mother. You don't have to make a whole lot of money to be a role model. My role model made $25,000 a year. I was a medium-level juvenile delinquent. There are a lot of extracurricular activities that can lead a kid down the wrong path. But I had people in my life – my mother, my father, my grandmother – who sacrificed a lot to make me successful."

On why he has a doctorate degree:

"I had to do it. One, for my children. Two, for the African American community. Three, for the sports community. And four, for my mother. I promised my mother that I would get my bachelor's. And then the reason why I got my master's was because every time I'd go to a meeting with my business managers, they wouldn't look at me. They'd just look at my lawyers. So I thought, 'Okay, you guys don't think I understand business terminology. Let me go learn it.' So I got a master's degree. Then my mother called me and said, 'You know, we don't have any doctors in the family.' So I looked into it. It took 5 years, and I did it. I didn't do it so people would call me Dr. O'Neal. But I went to my kids' PTA meeting the other day and a guy addressed me as 'Dr. O'Neal' in front of my son; it was a really proud moment for me."