Some continue to ask us, “How is Shaquille O’Neal a #6 BEIR? He’s so goofy and outgoing.” While we’ve answered this question in detail many times before, let us remind our viewers, especially the new ones, of a few important points regarding the 7-foot superman. Jon Niednagel first spotted Shaquille during his transition from high school to college hoops at LSU, immediately noticing his uniqueness. O Neal was fierce, nasty, extremely coordinated, hawk-eyed, and perhaps most telling, fine-motor-skilled. After all, just look at his hook shot. Unlike your gross-motor Magic Johnson (#1 FEAR) and others, Shaq then and now has never had quite a true hook shot. His shot, in fact, has always relatively been a mere wrist-flick. Although at the time Niednagel had never met Shaquille, after careful observation, he met his motor-skills and other Type-identifiers, and soon realized that the young, big buck was a #6 BEIR. In turn, Niednagel predicted (telling 3 NBA teams) great things for the 7-foot center, a prediction that he never would have made for most of the other 15 BTs Of course, looking back, those predictions came truer than blue.
In terms of his “outgoing” nature, remember that BTI no longer uses the term introvert and extravert, largely due to this exact misleading misunderstanding (Back brain vs. Front brain dominant). O Neal was the oldest of three siblings, and their family moved often (even to Germany for a time), which is a recipe for any Type to have a more outgoing nature. (Also, both of Shaq’s parents are Front-brained another strong influence for offspring outgoingness/ extraversion.) In junior high in Germany I fought kids all the time, says Shaq. I had such a bad temper, I almost got thrown out of school. A few lickings from my dad got me out of that scene. He wore me out with a paddle. It’s commendable to see Shaq’s father kept the feisty #6 in line!