A few years ago, one police officer from the Gainesville Police Department became popular after he played a basketball game with kids he visited after a noise complaint.
It all started when a few kids were in the street playing basketball with their friends in the afternoon.
But they were a little bit louder than a neighbor felt fine with, so that person called the police to complain about that.
Bobby White took it on, and soon he arrived at the neighborhood to check what was going on.
He pulled over, and got out of the patrol car in order to see what the kids were doing.
Moments later, he found the teens and he started playing a basketball game with them.
Once it was over, he left, and he promised he’d soon be back for a rematch.
The video became very popular back then, because the police department posted it on social media and accompanied it with something that made perfect sense and also made people say well done to the officer.
“We’re going to let kids be kids. We are going to focus on the ones that commit crimes. #HoopsNotCrime,” the post read.
A few days later, White returned to that neighborhood to play again with his new friends, but this time he was not alone.
Many officers accompanied him, but there was also an SUV that arrived with them.
In that car, there was a super famous former NBA player, 7-foot-1 Shaquille O’Neal!
The teens could not believe their eyes when they saw the super tall man getting out of the SUV that accompanied the patrol cars.
Shaq didn’t remain far from them; on the contrary, he went close to them and hugged each one before they started playing basketball.
They all played together, and Shaq even gave them some tips.
After that, he told each one of those young guys that if they could shoot a hoop, they could get $100.
Most of them shot only once, and for a couple of them who didn’t succeed the first time, Shaq gave a second chance.
When the game was over, the famous basketball star asked all of them to get closer to him, so he could give them some advice.
He explained to them that he has earned millions, and the things he had to do were respect his peers, listen to his parents, and go to school.
He also asked them to stay out of trouble, and the young ones seemed to pay attention to what the man was sharing with them.
Finally, they promised they would be whatever they wanted to be while growing up, but they’d make sure to respect peers and elders, and especially their parents.
And, although this story looks very special, we should expect it since it involved O’Neal.
You see, he has shared in an interview that:
“When it’s all said and done, talking about legacies, I want mine to be one that says Shaq was a nice guy. Not ‘Shaq sold this, Shaq has that.’ None of that matters. Was he nice?”
Watch the kids get surprised by the big-hearted basketball player in the video below!
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