ESPN’s Outside The Lines chronicled the relationship between Boston Celtics center, Shaquille O’Neal and the later rapper, Notorious B.I.G.
In 1993, the two then 22-year-old entertainers met after Big agreed to lay verses on Shaq’s hit single, “You Cant Stop The Reign” and became friends shortly after, The Diesel tells Outside The Lines.
Shaq even claims that he was set to meet the Brooklyn rapper at the party Big was heading to when he was gunned down on March 7, 1997.
“I was on my way [to the party], I was dressed. Usually Uncle Jerome will just come up, but I guess he tried to call and the front desk wouldn’t let him through. I just fell asleep. I woke up about 4 o’clock from a call from my mother. She said ‘Did you go to the party?’ I’m like, ‘No, what’re you talking about?’ She said, ‘You know, your friend was shot.”
Shaq admited to ESPN that the situation messed with him and he often wondered if he would have been with Big, would the outcome have been different.
Biggie protégé Lil Cease tells OTL he definitely thinks Shaq’s presence may have changed the outcome of history.
“I’m sure Shaq would have had security and I’m sure B.I.G. would have had enough security to come with him that day to make sure Shaq was alright,” hypothesizes Cease. “So I definitely think if Shaq would have been there, it definitely would have changed.”
In his Shaq’s 2001 autobiography, Shaq Talks Back, O’Neal writes “If I would have been standing by his truck, would the killer still have shot? I’ve always asked myself that question.
Check the story from ESPN’s Outside The Lines
