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Originally Posted by Uter Zorker
Davis rose above the adversity and was mentored by AAU coach Collis Temple Jr., the first black player at LSU. Temple helped the teenage Davis meet his idol, Shaquille O'Neal.
Shaq jokingly calls Davis, who followed in his footsteps at LSU, "my son."
"I was 14 or 15, and I went to his house and I was hanging with Shaq," Davis says. "He says to me, 'Let's go outside and wrestle.' We started wrestling. I pinned him down. He couldn't budge me."
The 7-1, 325-pound O'Neal confirms the story.
"He picked me up and body-slammed me," says Shaq. "That's when I knew he was for real."