Shaquille O'Neal has certainly garnered numerous individual awards and has been a member of many team championships during his basketball career.

O'Neal is the only LSU student-athlete in a major sport to win a National Player of the Year award in college and a Most Valuable Player award in the pros. He was an Olympic Gold Medalist in 1996 and a member of the NBA 50-year Top 50 team. O'Neal won four NBA titles.

However, there may have not been a more emotional day for O'Neal than Thursday. Late in the afternoon, a statue of a young O'Neal dunking a basketball was unveiled. The statue is located just outside the new basketball practice facility.

"I don't think there is anything comparable to what this means to me," said O'Neal at a press conference following the ceremony. "Coach (Trent) Johnson sent me little sculptures of what (statue) would look like. So, I thought it was one of those little things. When that curtain came down, it was like 'wow.'

"I'm honored and humbled. There are a lot of great players that came through this university, greater than me. There were Pistol Pete Maravich, Bob Pettit, Chris Jackson. I'm honored that they chose me to build a statue of. I had no idea it was that big. I think it's beautiful. It's fabulous."

The 900-pound bronze statue is a life-size representation of O'Neal dunking a ball in a LSU uniform. O'Neal, his mother Lucille, Johnson and his coach Dale Brown pulled down the curtain which was covering the statue.

"Shaquille has many fond memories of here," Lucille O'Neal said. "I want to express how he was a role model for me. Please make an investment in your child because someday he will return the investment.

"Through this statue, Shaquille will be a role model for all the young people so that they can achieve things through hard work."

O'Neal acknowledged that it was Johnson's idea to have the statue built.

"Coach Johnson is doing a fabulous job of bringing (former LSU basketball players) back together," O'Neal said. "Coach Johnson and me have become good friends. He told me he wanted to (build a statue of me). I told him to stop playing. He sent me e-mails and I realized he was really serious.

"I really didn't realize it was going to be that big. So, I want to thank coach Trent Johnson. I really appreciate you very much."

O'Neal announced his retirement after the Boston Celtics were eliminated from the NBA playoffs last spring. O'Neal played very little in the second half of the season due to injuries.

"On June 1, 2011, the sport of basketball lost an icon," Johnson said. "Forget about what he did on the court. (O'Neal) was one of the most loveable, personable superstars we've ever had. He was so open to everybody. We have lost an icon, not just a basketball player."

O'Neal recalled how difficult it was to tell Brown that he was not going to return to LSU for his senior season following a loss to Indiana in the second round of the 1992 NCAA tournament.

"I just had so much fun here," O'Neal said. "A lot of people don't know this. When I had to call coach Brown and tell him I didn't think I wanted to come back, that was one of the hardest days of my life. There would be no more Tiger Town, no more Sports on Thursday, no more crawfish.

"There would be no more fun. Now I've got to go to work. That was a very, very difficult phone call. That was a very difficult decision. I promised my mom I would come back and finish my degree. I did seven years later."

O'Neal retold the story of how Brown met him when he was playing basketball in Germany. Brown thought O'Neal was a soldier. O'Neal was just 13 years old.

"I was not very good," O'Neal said. "I asked coach Brown how I could strengthen my legs to dunk. Coach Brown was consistent. I came to LSU because (Brown) was with me when I was nothing."

O'Neal gave credit to the people he met in Baton Rouge to help him develop into a man.

"The great thing about Baton Rouge is that the people here are so friendly," O'Neal said. "The campus is so lively and the night life is so great. Everyone is just together.

"Baton Rouge is one of the best cities in the world. I had people who were like my extended family. My parents raised me well. It is the people of Louisiana who really made me."

O'Neal has been hired by Turner Broadcasting to be a studio analyst during the upcoming NBA season. But, O'Neal announced some other future plans Thursday.

"A lot of people don't know this, but hopefully I will graduate in December and become Dr. O'Neal," O'Neal said. "I've been working on that the last four years. I didn't want to let a lot of people know until I actually became a doctor.

"I'm working on my dissertation now. Hopefully, I'll be Dr. O'Neal. Unfortunately, I will no longer answer to Shaq. You will have to call me Dr. O'Neal."