Mitch Richmond was one of the great NBA players of the 1990s. A six-time All-Star, five-time All-NBA player and the 1989 Rookie of the Year, he averaged at least 21.9 points per game in each of his first 10 seasons in the league and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014. Many fans forget though, that he also won a ring as a member of the Shaq-Kobe Lakers in 2002, his final season in the league.
Becoming an NBA champion was a fitting sendoff for a great player, but being teammates with Shaq, however briefly, is the gift that keeps on giving. That’s not an experience that a person forgets, even more than 20 years later.
Richmond was on the latest episode of Byron Scott’s Fast Break today, and he told one story about the Big Diesel that proved just how committed the seven-footer was to pranking his teammates.
Disgustingly, we already knew this, but luckily, this story, unlike so many Shaq stories, is not scatological in nature.
“I’m running late [to practice], and I’m riding, I’m flying,” Richmond said. “I get pulled over, bro. Now I’m kinda thinking, I’m looking in my glove compartment to get my stuff. Somebody hit on the window, and I didn’t look back, I just saw it was a car that wasn’t a police car … but it had the lights up. I’m like, ‘Damn.'”
Then Richmond heard a deep voice at his window growl, “License and registration.” He turned back to look. “I’m like, ‘Wait a minute.’ It was Shaq.”
At this, Byron Scott and his co-host Kid Jay busted out laughing. They’re no stranger to Shaq prank stories, but this was a good one. Richmond said that the big man didn’t stop there, though. “I’m like, ‘Come on, dawg, what you doin’?!’ And then he ran my plates! He had my thing, ran my plates to the people.”
Shaq has always had a fascination with law enforcement, and sure enough, in 2002, he was a reserve officer with the Los Angeles Port Police. Just a couple of years ago, he even filmed a recruitment video for them.
Over the years, Shaq has gone on to become a reserve police officer across several jurisdictions, including in Florida, Arizona, Louisiana and Georgia.
Richmond said, “I remember like it was yesterday, we’re all sitting on the plane and Shaq is talking about, ‘Yeah man, I wanna really do undercover.’ The whole plane started laughing. ‘Dawg, how you gonna do undercover? People gonna recognize you right away.’
It’s unknown if Shaq ever got to fulfill his ultimate fantasy of becoming an undercover officer, though given his immense size and fame, it seems exceedingly unlikely. Donnie Brasco, he’s not. He did get to play a cop in Adam Sandler’s Grown Ups 2, though!
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