In the early 90's Pepsi ran a campaign where certain bottles in their vending machines contained shirts which were covered with basketball prints and read in big letters, "Shaq was here."
While for many people that may or may not be an accurate statement, for folks in southwest Virginia, it's 100% true.
After 19 years Shaquille O'Neal is calling it quits. Wednesday afternoon @Shaq tweeted, "im retiring," along with a video message explaining he was hanging up his size 23s.
The Orlando Magic used the first pick of the 1992 draft on O'Neal, who eventually played for six different teams - winning rings with two, one with Miami and three with Los Angeles - and was named first-team All-NBA eight times. However, if you live in the Roanoke Valley you may remember "The Diesel" playing for a different squad.
In the summer of 2005 the Bedford County Sheriff's office added a little Shaq-Fu to its Operation Blue Ridge Thunder, when the 15-time NBA All-Star and video game star was sworn in as a reserve deputy sheriff. The task force was geared towards the prevention of internet crimes against children, something O'Neal had previous experience with when he served as a spokesman for the Department of Justices' Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
The Bedford office lent O'Neal a marked sport utility vehicle, which of course they had to remove the back seat from in order to move the seat back 14 inches, as well issuing him a standard .40-caliber Glock. Shaq scored "expert" on the shooting range according to Sheriff Mike Brown.
In 2006 O'Neal acted as an investigator in a botched child pornography raid at a farm in Pennsylvania County. Later it was learned the Internet provider gave the deputies an incorrect address, which lead to the innocent, yet terrified, farmer's home. Whether or not the farmer has made it through an entire viewing of "Kazaam" since is unknown.
Officer Shaq's term ran out in 2007 and in 2008 all ties were cut with the 7-foot-1 lawman by the department after a video began to circulate showing O'Neal using offensive language during a rap video aimed at Kobe Bryant. Despite his helpful nature, his time enforcing the laws of Bedford County was over.
Thoughout his career O'Neal has left his 325-pound imprint in many places and southwest Virginia is definitely one of them.
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