--- title: Shaq Surprises Florida Kids with Game of Pickup Basketball description: When Officer Bobby White played basketball with some kids on Jan. 15, he told them he'd return with backup. canonical: https://time.com/4192482/shaq-surprise-florida-kids-basketball-game/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-25T17:21:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:29:11.257Z og:title: Shaq Surprises Florida Kids with a Game of Pickup Basketball og:description: "I came out here because I saw the video" og:url: https://time.com/4192482/shaq-surprise-florida-kids-basketball-game/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Shaq Surprises Florida Kids with a Game of Pickup Basketball twitter:description: "I came out here because I saw the video" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Shaq Surprises Florida Kids With a Game of Pickup Basketball > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 25, 2016 5:21 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 25, 2016 5:21 PM UTC When Officer Bobby White played [basketball with a group of kids](http://time.com/4165340/basketball-skills-jaliyah/) on Jan. 15, he told them he’d return with backup. Little did they know that the backup would be [Shaquille O’Neal](http://time.com/4062608/hugh-jackman-shaquille-o-neal-phone-booth-trivia/). A video of White shooting hoops with the group [recently went viral](https://www.facebook.com/GainesvillePolice/videos/10153223739347015/) when the officer joined the game rather than disbanding it after the Gainesville Police Department received a noise complaint about kids playing too “loudly” in the streets. [Shaq](http://time.com/15747/you-can-pay-500-for-shaq-to-follow-you-on-instagram/) was one of the nearly 16 million people who watched the heartwarming clip, and showed up to help make good on White’s promise of a rematch. **Read More:** [Police Officer Had the Best Response to a Complaint About Kids Playing Basketball](http://time.com/4190385/police-officer-receives-noise-complaint-joins-basketball-game/) The 7-foot-1 NBA legend played some pick-up with the kids before offering each boy a chance to win $100 if they made one of two shots. After every child sunk the basket, Shaq gathered the group to dole out some advice before handing over the money. “I came out here because I saw the video,” he said. “I’m proud of you guys. Stay out of trouble, listen to your parents, respect your elders and you can be anything you wanna be. I’m from the same neighborhood you’re all from. I grew up just like this. Only you can change this and you change it through basketball and showing respect to your peers like you did.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4192482/shaq-surprise-florida-kids-basketball-game/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4192482/shaq-surprise-florida-kids-basketball-game/"},"headline":"Shaq Surprises Florida Kids With a Game of Pickup Basketball","datePublished":"2016-01-25T17:21:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:29:11.257Z","description":"\"I came out here because I saw the video\"","url":"https://time.com/4192482/shaq-surprise-florida-kids-basketball-game/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Basketball","Sports topic","Athletes","viral","Florida"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4192482/shaq-surprise-florida-kids-basketball-game/","name":"Shaq Surprises Florida Kids With a Game of Pickup Basketball"}}]}] ```