BATON ROUGE – The long-awaited debut of the “SEC Storied” film feature: “Shaq & Dale” will be on the SEC Network on Monday night at 8 p.m. CT and then again on ESPN on April 16 at 7 p.m. CT.
“Shaq & Dale,” narrated by Louisiana native and music superstar Tim McGraw, follows former basketball great Shaquille O’Neal as he returns to LSU to visit with Dale Brown, the coach who helped make it all possible. The relationship between these two men goes back to the time when Shaq was 13 and living on an army base in Germany when he asked the coach for some exercise tips. Since that day, O’Neal has received at least one letter or email from Brown every week—and a lot more of them during their three years together in Baton Rouge. Back then, they might have seemed very different, but they forged a deep friendship that they cherish to this day.
The film, directed by ESPN’s Hannah Storm and shot primarily in Baton Rouge in 2014, opens with a telling remark by McGraw, “I hope you didn’t come all this way expecting to hear a story just about basketball … hope you didn’t settle in just to remember what it looked like when the player, bigger and better than all the others, ruled college basketball.”
For 30 years, since meeting in 1984 in Germany, the two have been linked to this day. This is that story of a special relationship that LSU fans will want to see in a film that is certainly more than Xs and Os.
The film is the kickoff of four straight weeks of new SEC Storied features on the SEC Network each Monday night through May 4.
“Shaq & Dale” Directed by Hannah Storm
“Shaq & Dale,” narrated by Louisiana native and music superstar Tim McGraw, follows former basketball great Shaquille O’Neal as he returns to LSU to visit with Dale Brown, the coach who helped make it all possible. The relationship between these two men goes back to the time when Shaq was 13 and living on an army base in Germany when he asked the coach for some exercise tips. Since that day, O’Neal has received at least one letter or email from Brown every week-and a lot more of them during their three years together in Baton Rouge. Back then, they might have seemed very different, but they forged a deep friendship that they cherish to this day.
SEC Storied Schedule – Televised on SEC Network
Date, Show, Time (CT)
April 13, “Shaq and Dale,” 8 p.m.
April 20, “Coach Bernie,” 8 p.m.
April 27, “Dominique Belongs to Us,” 8 p.m.
May 4, “Thunder and Lightning,” 8 p.m.