O'Neill recalls: Instinct saves a friend's life

On February 23, Beijing time, according to NESN website writer Pat Bradley, former NBA player Shaquille O'Neal could have saved the life of his friend Christopher Wallace, a famous American rapper.

Christopher Wallace, stage name The Notorious B.I.G., was attacked and shot dead by unknown gunmen in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997. On March 8, 1997, he won the 11th Soul Train Music Awards in Los Angeles. After the ceremony, Wallace went to a party at the Peterson Automobile Museum in Los Angeles. Wallace's good friend NBA star O'Neal was supposed to meet wallace after the party on the night of the crime. Later, he felt guilty that he had not met Wallace as promised.

At 12:45 p.m. on March 9, 1997, the streets were crowded and Wallace's car was parked at a red light 46 meters from the museum. A black Chevrolet pulls up next to Wallace's SUV. An African-American man wearing a blue suit and tie rolled down the window and shot wallace with a 9mm blue steel pistol; four bullets hit Wallace. Wallace's entourage took him to Sinai Medical Center, where doctors performed an emergency open chest surgery, but Wallace died around 1 o'clock.

It is reported that O'Neill had tried to persuade Wallace not to go to that party.

"I was in my apartment, in a cold white suit and a white hat, and I was dressed and ready to go to the banquet (the party), but I fell asleep and at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon I got a call from my mother who asked me, 'Did you go to the party?' I replied to her, 'No, what are you talking about?' She told me, 'Your friend was shot. I was very surprised, 'What?' So I hung up the phone and called some people, who told me what had happened. O'Neill wrote in his autobiography, My Story.

(Editor: Running)