Jermaine O’Neal remembers the one that got away
Words. Austin Burton
Jermaine O’Neal has been a forgotten pioneer.
When people talk about the NBA’s preps-to-pros success stories, they usually lead with Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Tracy McGrady, LeBron James and Dwight Howard. Despite being one of the first to make the leap successfully — reaching six NBA All-Star Games in his career — O’Neal is often overlooked. The year after KG set the trend in motion, Jermaine and Kobe were picked in the first round of the ‘96 Draft.
Coming out of Eau Claire H.S. in South Carolina, Jermaine was a 6-foot-10 athletic shot blocker with loads of raw talent, especially considering he’d entered high school as a 6-4 guard. He was dominant at Eau Claire even while growing into his new body, averaging 22 points, 12 boards and five blocks as a senior for one of the best teams in the country.
But despite having won the South Carolina state title three years in a row, Jermaine’s squad lost in the playoffs his final year. They say you remember the losses more than the wins, and Jermaine is no different. After a recent Miami Heat practice, I talked to J.O. about his lasting high school memory:
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“That one game we lost, man, I was miserable. That will forever be the sore spot of my high school career. It was unfamiliar territory for me. We were always winning, and winning running away. It’s my senior year — when it’s supposed to be the most fun, there was the great debate about whether I would go to college or go pro — you know, you wanna finish it off winning, not losing.
“It’s funny looking back on it, but when it happened I was shocked. I was sitting down on the end of the bench, and when the buzzer went off I was just sitting there, staring. I never knew that part of the game. I cried. It took me like two days just trying to get over the shock. It was hard; I didn’t want my last memory of high school to be losing.
“Now, I understand why we lost. It was a semifinal game, before the state championship. We were up by 15 going into the second half, and then we just went cold. I didn’t get very many touches for whatever reason; I scored 22 in the first half, and only had four points in the second half. It was a perfect example of not playing team ball, not sharing the ball. It was tough. We were going for No. 1 in the nation that year, and you know in high school, every game counts toward that national championship.
“We played Mullens. I’ll never forget that. In fact, this summer I was in Chicago working out, and I was standing outside my condo talking on the phone and these people walked up. They’re like, ‘Hey, Jermaine, we’re from Mullens. We’re the team that beat you guys!’ Nah, I’ll never forget that name … And what really put salt on the wound is that they lost the very next week! I thought since they beat us they were at least gonna win state, and they turned around and lost. That pissed me off even more.
“But high school was the most fun part of my playing career, ’cause it was just about the love. It wasn’t about anything else. We won three straight championships; I think that’s where I got an understanding of how to win on a consistent basis, and that’s helped me out a lot in the pros. Going to Portland, putting it all together in Indiana, and these last two years in Miami being able to teach the young guys, all of that started in high school when we were just playing for the love of it.”