Shaquille O’Neal, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar center, tried to find a Latter-day Saint woman to set up with Mark Madsen — a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — when the two were teammates. Seriously.
In a new book called “Three Ring Circus: Kobe, Shaq, Phil, and the Crazy Years of the Lakers Dynasty” — which chronicles the Shaq/Kobe Bryant Lakers era — O’Neal is described by another teammate, Mike Penberthy, as “a big brother with a huge bank account.”
Madsen joined the Lakers in 2000 after being drafted out of Stanford. In the book, author Jeff Pearlman details how O’Neal “turned into his new teammate’s personal MormonMatch.com service.”
The book tells one story of when Madsen and O’Neal were on a flight and “a pretty stewardess approached.”
“Are you Mormon?” O’Neal asked her.
“No,” she replied. “Why?”
“Never mind,” O’Neal said.
“A few weeks later,” Madsen said, “a single member of the Lakers’ front office came up to me at the Staples Center and said, ‘The most interesting thing happened last night. I’m sitting in a restaurant in Redondo Beach and Shaq was in there asking some of the girls if they were Mormon because if they were, he wanted to set them up with you.’”
Madsen, who is now the head coach at Utah Valley University, married the love of his life in 2016, thanks in large part to his mother, not O’Neal, as the Deseret News previously reported. His parents were hosting a small musical event in Provo. Madsen’s sister recommended her children’s piano teacher, Hannah Harkness, to help out. His parents soon introduced the two.
A few weeks later, they went on their first date.
“We got along so great from the start, it really clicked,” Madsen told the Deseret News. “Just seeing the way she lived her life, her commitment to personal relationships, her faith and her family, and she was so much fun at the same time. It was a beautiful thing.”
Still, Madsen still sees O’Neal as one of the most helpful people out there. He said O’Neal gave him advice before his first NBA game that he won’t ever forget.
“I was nervous. Shaq came up to me and said, ‘Hey, don’t try to do too much, but don’t try to do too little.’ Something as simple as that,” Madsen told the Deseret News. “I’ve always remembered that. As an assistant coach, you can’t do too much, but you can’t do too little. You’ve got to find the balance. And at a lot of different times in life, that’s been good, sound advice.”
“Shaq is someone who makes other people’s careers,” Madsen said. “He’s always been very supportive.”