Shaq is the only active basketball player with a doctorate degree, though fellow star Dikembe Motumbo also holds an honorary doctorate. While Shaq’s doctorate isn’t a Ph.D., it is the highest level of education for a professional athlete.
Shaquille O’Neal
LSU basketball star Shaquille O’Neal recently earned a doctorate in education. The 7-foot center, 325 pounds, is described by Dr. David Kopp as a “tall Tarzan.” While at LSU, he reportedly lifted Kopp like he was Tarzan.
In addition to getting his doctorate in education, Shaquille O’Neal also earned a Master’s degree in business. However, his Master’s degree was from the University of Phoenix, which has been questioned by some for its mediocre quality. Despite the criticism, O’Neal is still on course with his education.
The NBA star has recently spoken about his desire to become a lawyer. He even mentioned his desire to start a law firm. Previously, O’Neal revealed his strategy for success in business, which he learned from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
In 2000, the collegiate program at Louisiana State University offered O’Neal a chance to complete his studies. He promised his mother when he was drafted by the Orlando Magic that he would finish his Bachelor’s degree. O’Neal earned his MBA in 2005.
Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan was the most successful basketball player of all time, but not many people know that he earned a doctorate in education. He was a lecturer at St. Patrick’s College and educated generations of students. As a teacher, he believed in holistic education and child-centred learning.
Jordan’s academic career included research in neural networks, which he developed as a cognitive model in the 1980s. However, in recent years, his work has been more oriented towards statistics and traditional machine learning, and he is best known for popularizing Bayesian networks and recurrent neural networks. He also made major contributions to the formalization of variational methods for approximate inference and the expectation-maximization algorithm.
In his second season with the Chicago Bulls, Jordan already had a stellar reputation as a dominant player. The Chicago Bulls were still years away from a championship, but Jordan was already a star. As a result, he had the freedom to pursue his doctorate degree while continuing to play basketball.
Michael Jordan earned a doctorate degree in education from the University of North Carolina. He is one of only two NBA players with a doctorate degree. Other famous sports figures who have earned doctorates are Shaquille O’Neal and Magic Johnson. Despite the fame of these two athletes, they are not the only ones who have earned a doctorate degree in education.
Jeremy Shu-How Lin
Jeremy Shu-How Lin is one of the most famous sports stars who earned a doctorate. Other famous athletes who earned doctorates while playing basketball include Shaquille O’Neal, the best center in NBA history, and Michael Jordan. In his YouTube video, Lin talks about the pressures of getting into Harvard. He reveals that he had nightmares about not passing tests, and how important it was to have a high GPA and SAT score.
Lin was born in Torrance, California, and grew up in Palo Alto, California. His parents were Taiwanese immigrants who came to the United States in the 1970s. His mother was an American citizen, and his father was a Taiwanese national. Lin is a dual citizen of Taiwan. His paternal family hails from Beidou, Changhua, while his mother was born in Taiwan.
Lin is the first Asian American player to play in the NBA. His first season with the Knicks, he went 7-0. He scored 136 points in his first five games, including a game-winning three against the Raptors. He went on to win the NBA title with the Knicks in 2012, becoming the first Asian American to do so.
Despite his success in the NBA, Jeremy Lin is still facing the end of his career at an early age. Even great players have to deal with this painful part of their lives, and Jeremy Lin is no exception. He won’t be leaving the NBA on his own terms, though.
Jeremy Shu-How Lin is a remarkable example of a non-traditional athlete pursuing a doctorate. While playing basketball, he also studied education at Harvard. His research and coursework in this field helped him earn a doctorate of education.
Wilt Chamberlain
Wilt Chamberlain was an outstanding high school basketball player, and he was sought out by many top universities. He decided to go to the University of Kansas, where he played college basketball and led his team to the NCAA tournament. In 1957, he won the tournament’s “Most Outstanding Player” award. He continued to excel in college, making all-America and conference teams. Unfortunately, he did not earn his doctorate.
Wilt Chamberlain later earned a doctorate in education from the University of Kansas. Despite his success in basketball, he continued to struggle with discrimination and inequality in Lawrence. Many businesses refused to hire black employees. He became a prominent voice in the Douglas County NAACP chapter. Chamberlain was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1978 and was named one of the top 50 basketball players in 1996. He died in Bel Air, California, on October 12, 1999.
Wilt Chamberlain’s greatest season in the NBA came in 1962, when he became the first player in the NBA to score 100 points. He also set a league record for most points scored in a single game. Chamberlain’s career-long career included 1,045 games for three different teams. He averaged 50.4 points per game and 25.7 rebounds. During his career, he was voted to the All-NBA first team three times.
Chamberlain was born on August 21, 1936 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended Overbrook High School and played basketball for three years. He was 6’11” tall when he was a student, and grew to 7’1″ before joining the NBA. He earned the NBA Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards. He and Bill Russell also shared a close relationship off the court.
Magic Johnson
Magic Johnson has been working on education issues for many years, and he earned a doctorate in education in 2010. He is currently involved with the Bridgescape Academy, a high school in Chicago that offers an alternative high school diploma to students who have dropped out. The program is free and open to students from fourteen to twenty years of age.
Johnson is a Lansing native and attended Everett High School before going on to study at Morehouse College in Atlanta. He majored in psychology and had the goal of becoming an educator. While in Atlanta, he worked as a tutor and mentor for youth. After graduation, he decided to return to his hometown to give back to the community.
Johnson was also awarded an honorary doctorate from Xavier University in Louisiana. He also received an honorary doctorate in business. In addition to being an NBA player, Magic Johnson holds doctorate degrees in business, education, and law. His degree in education is particularly valuable because it will help him make a better decision about his career.
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