A Surprise Visitor
By Jeff Moffitt
@moffittjc (118347)
Gainesville, Florida
January 23, 2016 8:49pm CST
Earlier today I posted about a video that went viral across the country of a police officer here in my city who responded to a noise complaint against kids playing basketball in the street. The post talked about how, instead of reprimanding the kids for being loud, the police officer instead joined them for a game of basketball. In the video, the officer could be heard joking with the kids that he was going to come back the next day with backup so he could take on all the kids in a game of hoops.
Well, lo and behold, NBA basketball legend Shaquille O'Neil saw the viral video, and flew to Gainesville this morning to meet the officer who was in the video! Shaq said he was so impressed to not only meet the officer in person, but that he also wanted to go meet all the kids in the video and play some basketball with them!
The setting was perfect when the officer took Shaq back to the location of where he played hoops with the kids. The kids were there playing in the streets again, and the officer got out and asked them if they remembered him saying he was going to bring backup. They all nodded their head yes, expecting to see several other police officers join them. Instead, Shaquille O'Neil gets out of the squad car and joins them! All of the neighborhood kids were in complete disbelief!
Shaq and several other police officers then played a couple of games of basketball with all the neighborhood kids, and then afterward Shaq signed autographs and took pictures with each and every child! He then gathered them all together, and gave them all an uplifting pep talk!
What an amazing experience for those kids! A chance to meet a living legend, one of the greatest basketball players of all time! And not only to meet him, but to have a chance to play basketball with him!
16 people like this
15 responses
@kevin1877uk (36988)
•
24 Jan 16
WOW amazing story all round, not often you hear of good things happening.
4 people like this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
24 Jan 16
I think good things like this happen on a daily basis all over the world, but we just don't hear about it because the news media only want to report on the negative stuff. I'm willing to bet though, that for every negative story we hear, there are 100 positive stories that never get told!
5 people like this
@kevin1877uk (36988)
•
24 Jan 16
@moffittjc True I agree, all we hear about are the bad things that happen, it's not often we hear of all the good that happens. I'm not sure to why the media goes for bad, does bad news sell better than good news?
2 people like this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
24 Jan 16
@kevin1877uk They say bad news sells, which is true. But, have they ever tried selling good news? Maybe good news sells even better than bad news! All I know is, in the case of this policy officer, the video of him playing basketball with the kids went viral and had over 3.9 million views within three hours of its posting. If that's not evidence that good news sells, then I don't know what is!
3 people like this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
24 Jan 16
I didn't realize it until just a few minutes ago when I watched the YouTube video that Shaq gave each of those kids $100 each! So they got a double whammy today...got to meet a famous basketball player AND made some money! lol
2 people like this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
24 Jan 16
@paigea There is a YouTube video of it. It's called "Rematch: Gainesville Police Department." I have no idea how to post YouTube links in my comments! lol
2 people like this
@paigea (35622)
• Canada
24 Jan 16
@moffittjc Wow, that is impressive. Their friends will be jealous.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
24 Jan 16
And to think, all this started because one police officer took the time to care!
2 people like this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
24 Jan 16
And Shaq is such a down-to-earth person. The guy is over 7 feet tall and probably weighs close to 300 pounds, but he is just a big, lovable teddy bear! He cares so much for the kids, and is always doing what he can to help them! Although he was a professional sports athlete, and a hall of fame player (he earned over $700 million dollars during his playing career), when he retired from professional basketball he became a certified police officer so he could be out on the streets helping people. He's retired from that profession now as well, but it just goes to show what a great heart he has for helping people.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (325255)
• Rockingham, Australia
25 Jan 16
@moffittjc What an incredible and heart-warming story. He would be doing so much good.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
24 Jan 16
For those kids, it probably not only made their day, but their entire life!
1 person likes this
@VivaLaDani13 (60293)
• Perth, Australia
6 Dec 17
@moffittjc That is super awesome! ok I would be more thrilled if it was Michael Jordan lol but hey the Shaq is still good too! I would have felt like an ant standing next to him and feel so intimidated playing lol
2 people like this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
7 Dec 17
I would have loved to have seen Michael Jordan show up and play basketball with the kids, but Shaq is just as well known by these kids as MJ is (uh...that MJ is for Michael Jordan, not Michael Jackson! lol)
2 people like this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
8 Dec 17
@VivaLaDani13 Ooh la la...you're going to spank me? I can't wait!
2 people like this
Michael Jackson 
@zebra2222 (5269)
• United States
26 Jan 16
That was a very uplifting event. We need more of those things happening around the country.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
28 Jan 16
Things like that DO happen everyday in our country, but just don't get the publicity they deserve. Many good things happening around our country often go unnoticed, and unreported. but they're still happening, and the people making good things happen aren't doing it for the attention or publicity, they are doing it because they care for their community or for helping other people!
@LadyDuck (457244)
• Switzerland
24 Jan 16
@moffittjc I completely agree, I like to see kids playing, they do nothing wrong.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
24 Jan 16
Some people seem to forget that! Yes, it is perfectly legal to make noise during the day! Plus, they were just kids playing out in the street. Nothing wrong with that! As the officer said, he would rather see those kids playing out in the street than out there committing a crime! They were just kids being kids!
2 people like this
@garymarsh6 (23393)
• United Kingdom
24 Jan 16
Wow what a lovely thing for him to do. Well done you for posting the video and hats off to the policeman for being human and not a robot!
2 people like this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
24 Jan 16
I work very closely with our city's police officers on a daily basis. They are all good people. They love their jobs, they love their communities, they love the city they live and work in. They want to help people, they want to make this city a better place to live. Everyone thinks police officers are the bad guys, that they just want to beat up criminals and arrest everyone and take them to jail. That is the furthest thing from the truth. The police officers in this city will go out of their way to exhaust every other opportunity before they arrest someone. They do everything they can to keep people OUT of jail (which is the exact opposite of how the media portrays them).
2 people like this
@garymarsh6 (23393)
• United Kingdom
24 Jan 16
@moffittjc I have the greatest respect for the police. They are damned if the do and damned if they don't. There are bad apples in all professions though and the press think they sell more papers with a bad story rather than those with good outcomes. I am glad you have respect for them too.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
24 Jan 16
@garymarsh6 I work with them on a daily basis, so I have learned to have great respect for them. And yes, there are bad apples in every job, including police, but when I see those people I make sue the Chief is notified and aware of who those officers are. Our Chief of Police wastes no time in either correcting they behavior or getting rid of them off the force.
1 person likes this
@andriaperry (116860)
• Anniston, Alabama
24 Jan 16
Awesome a complaint turned into something good. I wonder if the people who called the police came out for pictures? lol
2 people like this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
24 Jan 16
That is a good question! Either they gave in and joined them, or they were hunkered down in their house hiding from all the commotion! lol
2 people like this
@Blondie2222 (28611)
• United States
24 Jan 16
I saw that on the news today, what a wonderful story and those kids will be talking about that at school i'm sure.
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
24 Jan 16
I've been hearing lots of reports that news stations across the country have been reporting on the story. It's nice to see the news media focus on a positive story for once, instead of the same old negative stuff we see and hear every day!
