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NBA Players Who Grew Up Without A Biological Father

NBA Players Who Grew Up Without A Biological Father

Having a father-figure in your life is essential for proper upbringing, confidence, and security. Dad’s not only teach their kids how to form healthy and proper relationships but also give their kids the security and protection they so sorely need.

And while the role of a father is so much more, not everyone is fortunate enough to have a good father-figure within their homes. Below, we are going to look at the top NBA players who grew up without a biological father in their house and see how those struggles helped shape them into the players and individuals they are today.

Going to be a father soon or simply want to be a better one? Definitely check out our review of the best books on being a better father!

Shaquille O’Neal

Currently a sports analyst on Inside the NBAShaq is widely regarded as one of the best basketball players and centers of all time. A four-time NBA champion, Shaquille O’Neal played for six teams over his 19-year NBA career.

After playing college basketball at LSU, Shaq was drafted by the Orlando Magic with the first overall pick in the 1992 NBA draft. He would go on to win Rookie of the Year in 1992-93 and would lead the team to the 1995 NBA Finals.

However, after four years with the Orlando Magic, Shaq would sign with the Los Angeles Lakers, where he would play with coaching great Phil Jackson and fellow superstar Kobe Bryant. Together, they would go on to win three consecutive NBA championships.

However, amid tensions between the two superstars, Shaq would be traded to the Miami Heat, where he would join another superstar, Dwayne Wade, winning the NBA championship in 2006.

After the Miami Heat, Shaq would briefly play for the Phoenix Suns, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Boston Celtics, before retiring from the NBA.

In his personal life, Shaquille O’Neal was born in Newark, New Jersey to Lucille O’Neal and Joe Toney, who played high school basketball and was offered a basketball scholarship to play at Seton Hall.

Toney struggled with drug addiction and was imprisoned for drug possession when O’Neal was an infant. Upon his release, he did not resume a place in O’Neal’s life and instead agreed to relinquish his parental rights to O’Neal’s stepfather, Phillip A. Harrison, a career Army sergeant.

Shaq remained estranged from his biological father for decades and had not spoken with Toney or expressed an interest in establishing a relationship. On his 1994 rap albumShaq Fu: The Return, O’Neal voiced his feelings of disdain for Toney in the song “Biological Didn’t Bother”, dismissing him with the line:

“Phil is my father.”

However, O’Neal’s feelings toward Toney mellowed in the years following Harrison’s death in 2013, and the two met for the first time in March 2016, with O’Neal telling him, “I don’t hate you. I had a good life. I had Phil.”

Derrick Rose

Derrick Rose grew up in one of the toughest and most dangerous neighborhoods in Chicago’s South Side. The youngest son of Brenda Rose, Derrick was raised without a father figure, reportedly with his father having left his mother when she was pregnant with Derrick.

A current member of the New York Knicks, Derrick Rose played one year of college basketball for the Memphis Tigers before being drafted first overall by the Chicago Bulls in the 2008 NBA draft.

LeBron James

LeBron James was born on December 30, 1984, in Akron, Ohio to his mother Gloria Marie James at just the age of 16. His biological father, Anthony McClelland had an extensive criminal record and was not involved in LeBron’s life.

When James was growing up, life was often a struggle for the family, as they moved from apartment to apartment in the seedier neighborhoods of Akron while Gloria struggled to find steady work.

Gloria, realizing that her son would be better off in a more stable family environment, allowed him to move in with the family of Frank Walker, a local youth football coach who introduced James to basketball when he was nine years old.

Kevin Durant

Kevin Durant was born on September 29, 1988, in Washington, D.C. to Wanda and Wayne Pratt. When he was just an infant, his father left the family, leading to his parents divorce.

This divorce led his grandmother, Barbara Davis, helping to raise him. However, at the age of 13, Kevin’s father would reenter their lives and would accompany him to basketball tournaments across the country.

Allen Iverson

Allen Iverson was born on June 7, 1975, in Hampton, Virginia, to a single 15-year-old mother, Ann Iverson. Named Allen after his father, Allen Broughton, he would be given his mother’s surname after his father left the family.

Allen Iverson was known to always look out for his younger friends and was known to be a natural teacher. However, at the age of 13, his father figure Michael Freeman was arrested in front of him for dealing drugs.

Due to these issues and other home problems, Iverson would fail the eight grade. However, Iverson would begin working on ways to leave the projects and the society that he was born into, eventually being drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers with the first overall pick in the 1996 NBA draft.

Jalen Rose

Jalen Rose was born on January 30, 1973 and is a current sports analyst. He was a member of the University of Michigan Wolverines’ “Fab Five” alongside Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson who reached the 1992 and 1993 NCAA Men’s Division I basketball Championship games.

Jalen Rose’s biological father is Jimmy Walker, the number 1 overall draft pick in the NBA who played in the backcourt alongside Jerry West in the 1972 NBA All-Star Game.

However, although his father was a famous basketball player and that he would follow in his fathers footsteps, he never actually met his father. And although him and his father spoke multiple times over the phone, his father would pass away in July of 2007 due to lung cancer.